Local politicial sentiment these days

Homosexuality

A local celebrity has just come out of the closet and announced to the world publicly that he is gay. I’m just surprised that it is even considered as news these days. Come on, we are in 21^st century now! I think anyone, particularly a celebrity, if he/she doesn’t outright clearly declared that he/she is heterosexual after being reported or described by the media as a homosexual, he/she is very likely to be a gay person. For that local celebrity, he has been known to be with the same man for many years in and out in public places. His sexual orientation has been written on the wall already, why the restless people in the press still asked him if he is gay or not when they know the answer already? That’s just beyond me. He is an artist whose owe his audience his works – performance in music and stage, that’s what people should care about. What his sexual orientation is none of the public’s business, that’s at least what I think about the whole situation.

Certainly, I can’t prove what I say here, that’s simply based on what I read and learned all these years in print and in media. From my person’s point of view, these are my thoughts on the subject of homosexuality:

As a behavior, it is not in the majority among human beings. I don’t know if the claim by the gays & lesbian (“GL”) that 10% of human population are homosexuals are accurate or not. To me, whether it is 9% or 11% is not the point. It is very easy to accept that GL is not in majority, otherwise, our human population would not boom as it is now.

It is natural and is something that a person borne with. You either born gay or you don’t. Of course, exhibiting GL behavior or engaging in GL activities are not limited to GL. E.g. some heterosexual actors/actresses could act as GL in movies. That’s part of their job and they got paid doing that. Such exception cases are not what I’m talking about. I think the majority of GL naturally incline to love their own sex. They are not taught that way, they just do that ‘voluntarily’ and feel ‘natural’ to themselves. That’s why I don’t believe in the theory that heterosexual teens can be taught to be gay or GL can be taught to go straight. Cuz, that just goes against their nature. I think it is quite easy to understand that as a heterosexual man myself, it would be enjoyable to kiss a woman, but it would be a displeasure or at least I would not incline to kiss a man given I’ve a choice!

Some people in the majority have an impression that GL are taught and can thus to turn back is mainly because they have seen or known some people who ‘had appeared’ as straight and then eventually ‘turned’ GL. I think that’s a ‘false’ impression. It is because they have discounted the effect of a social environment that created and maintain by the heterosexual majority on the GL minority. GL is different from racial identity which has obvious physical traits. For instance, parents and teachers who are politically correct in race matter will teach kids not to bad mouth people of colors. For whites, they may be careful and a bit sensitive in dealing with blacks in their presence. Also, the issue of skin color is relatively neutral these days that come with less stigma than sexual orientation. However, for a heterosexual family and most k or grade schools, they teach kids what a normal family should look like, what acceptable and normal love relationship should look like. Anything that is out of majority, they are either hidden, discarded or even denounced by the heterosexual leader with authority. For GL kids growing up with a majority of heterosexual kids, I believe that they would have a tougher time to let their natural sexual orientation to develop. They are taught to accept heterosexuality as the only natural and acceptable behavior in the society. Human beings are group animals and want to be accepted by the fellow human beings. Thus, they would choose to behave and act the acceptable way though they may not feel right to do so. That’s why some natural-born GL would marry opposite sex and even have children before they ‘realize’ or ‘discover’ they are actually GL. For them afterwards, it is a matter of choice to stay in or walk out of the closet. Regardless, they are GL by nature. I just can’t imagine that any non-GL would choose to be GL and declare that themselves publicity which would face certain level of social disapproval or at least peer pressure. I think that those GL that go public are at least partially choose to face public pressure but getting mutual support from their gay peers rather than suffocating alone in their closet privately without help.

Furthermore, I believe that sexual orientation itself is neutral and should not subject to moral judgment. Two persons in love should be respected and either straight or gay.

Bring it closer to my home, I’ve not talked to my wife about giving sex education to my sons. I think I would openly discuss all of these to them when they are ready. Some people might question me a scenario that what if my son is gay, would that change my mentioned view on homosexuality? Well, first of all, that would prove that sexual orientation is not taught as I would not teach them to be gay. Basically, I would tell them what heterosexuality and homosexuality are, what the society’s view on them. If they happen to be gay and they choose to tell me, I think I will be shocked first and would take time to digest and ponder. I think the more challenging part is to disclose that to my wife whom I would think a lot of counseling would be needed. At the end of the day, I can’t change the fact that they are my sons by blood. Either I love them as always or ‘disown’ them just because their sexual orientation. I think the answer is pretty obvious.

7 Billions

Over this weekend, the 7 billionth person is supposed to born. Perhaps this magic number has already been passed as we all know that population count is still an ‘art’ rather than actual science. The point is that without our day-to-day awareness, human population is still keep on rising. For regular people like us, life just goes on. Being more responsible to ourselves, though we can’t stop others to have babies, we can still mostly control our own. That’s largely out of practicality as we only have limited resources. Being a responsible parent, besides the endless love and care that we can give to our children, we do need to feed, dress, and offer material goods/services to bring them up properly. In the competitive world today with so many people, particularly in urban places that we are living in, everybody is talking about getting our kids a better head start then the others, regardless of our kids’ natural ability or interests. However, what I wanna talk about more this time is actually coming from a macro point of view about human population explosion, what things may/will happen or for God sake already underway that would have dramatic impact on our and our kids’ future.

In terms of science or realistic social-economic impacts on how 7 billion people would do to our world, tons of information is available in the net, such as http://www.7billionactions.org . I would rather let the experts to do the talking. Instead, I would like to look at this human population explosion from conspiracy point of view which is less being covered in the press.

Challenging all you can, I believe that our world of 7 billion people is actually being controlled by a small group of rich and powerful people, perhaps by 7,000 or even 700. The point is that they have control over the most important resources that the rest of us are depending on, i.e. land, money, energy, foods, etc. We are basically their ‘slaves’ as long as we want to maintain our current standard of living or simply our way of life. Why? Because we are living in the system and environment that those people impose on us, i.e. capitalism and globalization. They set the rules that we need to play by. It is very hard to get out and live the life of social outcasts: I’ve never tried, but can easily imagine. For most others in our society, they wouldn’t even imagine or even try, cuz they just don’t even know there is other way. I don’t need to name names of our ‘owners’, you can find them easily on the net. Some people may be naïve enough to think that democracy forbid such concentration of power. However, I believe that democracy is simply a scheme with pleasant face value to fool the mass. Democracy can only be run peacefully and continuously with support by wealth. In other words, those who control wealth, do control democracy. So, you may ask what they all have to do with 7 billion people?

I don’t know exactly how many people our earth can support. But, I know the two following things:

- Humans, though physically are more or less the same, besides appearance and the minority with irregularities, we are all different from our birth till death. Why? Our ‘trans-life’ karma determines where we born, who our parents are, our level of intelligence, etc in this materialistic world. If you don’t believe in karma, you can’t deny the fact that we are all different in those aspects. As such, what we receive and exposed to since our births along with our growing experience are all different. As such, the material resources that we can access to would be unequal as well.

- Greed is part of human nature. We always want more. Yes, we can be educated to want less, but given the experience of having or not having things, many of us are gratify with having more. As the world’s resources are limited and they just can’t be shared equally, the poor are unhappy with what they have and the riches would not be happy to lose what they own. Inequity is just a fact.

Just imagine if you are in the ‘owner’ group for a minute. Yes, your peers would have their own personalities and views. However, since they have common interests and power, individuals may not be able to sway the majority thinking within the group, for the fear of being out casted and even ‘eliminated’. For such group of powerful owners, it is very natural for them to collaborate in order to maintain their powers by using the tools of the current system such as rules, laws, military and security forces, companies, trades, etc. Nevertheless, I can’t help but thinking that they would be very tempted to do things to make a ‘better’ world not just for themselves but for their offspring and successors as well. As such, I wouldn’t be surprise that the group will think that keeping human population in check would be one of their most important goals for the future.

So, what things can be done to ‘keep human population in check’? The definition is scary simple: slowing the growth or reducing it, or both!

Superficially, as our human population is in fact growing, it is diplomatically to claim in the public that slowing the growth is the goal. To playing along with that, the expected methods would be contraception, better education to women in the third world where population growths are concentrated, and more economic development along with acceleration of urbanization would the keys. Cuz, it is believed that more educated urban people are usually working too hard to breed.

However, since 7 billion is most likely being viewed as too many. I wouldn’t be surprise our owners would aim to reduce human population indeed. Theoretically, in order to reduce the overall human population when the base number is already big and ‘naturally’ there are more births than deaths, there needs ways to (i) ‘suppress’ the growth and (ii) ‘artificially’ causing more deaths.

In order to achieve (i), besides the superficial methods that are mentioned above, there are conspiracies are secretly being done to us and our children. For examples, genetic alternated foods are being used to somehow sterilize the mass. Most city folks don’t farm and depends on prepared foods. Small farmers are being squeezed, casted out, or controlled by big agricultural conglomerates who would use generic alternated seeds. Also, most livestock are also owned by big companies which control what they feed and inject in the bodies of animals that we eat. Meanwhile, many of us are educated and advised by authorities to take health-precaution shots for various virus or sickness. Would one of the long term side effects of chemicals in those shots be sterilization? You may say the government bodies and scientists are supposed to monitor the foods and drugs that we take. Well, not if they are controlled by our owners….

For (ii), it would be even scarier. How to reduce human population, aka increasing deaths? That can be done by many means. Wars, statistically and historically proved to be an ‘effective’ way to reduce population. Since most of us believe that aggression is part of our nature, as long as our leaders (if they are dictators of some sorts) go haywire, wars with other countries will happen, then massive deaths become very ‘natural’. In fact, wars have been with humans of all races throughout our known history. Peace actually is a rare phenominen of human beings. How sad is this? So, I believe that wars have been and will continue be used as a ‘depopulation’ tool by our owners. If you believe that wars can’t be and haven’t been controlled, think again! Most wars require resources, i.e. financial supports, so who controls money control wars. Go figure!

Besides wars, genocides also cause massive deaths. For example, the genocide between Hutu and Tutsis in Rwanda in last decade lasted only for few months, but hundreds of thousands of people died within weeks. People were killed by primitive tools, like axes and knifes. Someone may question how could that be controlled behind by owners? Well, with due respect to fellow human beings, I don’t mean to belittle anyone. I don’t care if they are Hutu, Tutsis or what. Just imagine, if ‘rules’ and resources are ‘somehow’ withdrawn from the ‘game’, and the people were remained with little to live on, with some ‘proper’ incitements, all hell will break loose to grab what’re left. No need to say more.

Human spirits can be very strong, but our bodies are actually very fragile! Massive death can also be caused by many other things, like ‘natural’ disasters (earthquake, tsunamis in area with large population), famines (in Ireland, China, East Africa, etc in recent history), and diseases (Black Death in 14th century Europe, Spanish Flu in early 20th century, AIDS, Ebola, etc). These phenomenons are well-known among the masses. Though they are horrible, comparing to wars and genocides, they would be relatively ‘acceptable’ by most human beings. It is because their occurrences are viewed as ‘natural’, so we can blame God, our Original Sin or even ourselves somehow, without knowing that those phenomenons could be initiated and controlled by our owners. For conspiracy non-believers, they only see those phenomenons as natural. For the minority of the masses, conspiracy believers, there are respective conspiracies to each phenomenon, such as weather control weapons, lab-created virus with specific targets in mind, etc. We certainly still have freedom to choose what to believe.

Anyway, just some random thoughts about overpopulation….

The Truth is out there

Well, it is the famous quote from the nostalgic hit show ‘the X-files’. This is not what I’m wanna talk about here, but rather I wanna talk about what I approach in digesting what we heard and read in the mass media. I’m not gonna preach here, rather I would say that I wanna share my view about this topic and maybe my sons would be able to know more how their old man thinks if they choose to read this in future.

Information Overload

Before printing was invented, people can only record well-organized data in writing. Though people back then had more time and less distraction in life to concentrate in writing, what they chose to write were largely the most valuable knowledge that they would like to pass on to others, such as religious texts or history. I doubt we could find a written newspaper back then. News was distributed by words of mouth. Naturally, they could be distorted or were lost easily. Remember the game of passing a message in a chain of people? i.e. message was easily twisted via passing along simply through 3 to 4 people. With the development of printing, not only records can be kept better, they can be spread to a much wider audience in the original form as written by the author. With the advancement of technology along with easier and cheaper access to the technical tools, information in the form of text, audio, visual or even video can now be distributed electronically by anybody in real time to everybody all over the world by few clicks of buttons. Such exponential growth of information, even the most skillful experts who live on information full time find it hard to sort information out, let alone regular folks like us who are mostly part-time casual consumers of information. We just have limited time to consume information that is not related to bread-wining. Somewhat like snacks, there is only so much that we can eat everyday.

Information Digestion

Along with analogy above, there are reasons why snacks industry is successful. Snacks are prepared for cheaper, easier access and quicker consumption with controlled quality under certain standardization of production process. Information access is getting similar treatment these days, news broadcasts are subject to rating, newspapers and magazines are subjected to sales, even news sites are subject to hits and ads. With the commercialization of news, it makes sense to ‘news-processors’ to prepare their raw-materials with favors and by their ‘culinary’ skills to make them into consumable sizes. Newscasts have limited in length, news articles are similarly customized with edited content. Journalists are not allowed to report exactly what they see, as media companies have their own commercial, legal and political agendas to comply with. Thus, what news stories are reported, when they are reported, and how they are reported is all ‘processed’. Since many people know that ‘processed foods’ are not healthy and are seeking for ‘organic foods’, why would we be fine with ‘processed information’?

Thank God for internet, at least there are endless distribution channels for individuals to voice out their opinions as well as people who know the truth to tell the world about it. Still, the mass majority of people would still stick to the familiar channels which happened to be the well-managed, most funded and most recognized as their primary source of news. I don’t blame them, there are indeed reasons why all these happen the way they are.

Things are connected

The corporate ‘information processors’ prepared the information in digestible chunks for mass consumption. As such, most people would learn the happening of selected news in sound bites, or through sensational subject titles and carefully selected images. Those selected news meet and are, assumed by the mass media, what most people want and are happy with. Unfortunately, the ‘most people’ includes many young and influential people who are supposed to have critical mind and intelligent to make decisions that would affect our world for current and future. I find it just sad that those people have been ‘stoned’ by such ‘processed info’ for so long that, they just can’t or are uncomfortable to wake up and think. I would say that most of the information and news that we get from the mass media these days are intentionally manipulated to a point that information are made to be perceived as disjointed. Thus, many people cannot see how many events are indeed connected. Even if suspicions of connectivity are raised, it is just hard to see how things are connected. I think that as the mass media are getting more powerful through consolidation in the industry and their growing wealth and power, it is just an intensive and constant tough fight for the truth to come out in the rough sea of information.

Conspiracy has value

Internet is a double-edged sword. It allows truth to come out and be spread, but it allows false information to do the same as well. As such, powerful information brokers have changed their strategy in information manipulation in view of the power of internet. In the pre-internet stage, they basically control the access of information by owning the outlets. Nowadays, they seek to be the ‘loudest’ and most visible one on the internet and meanwhile by creating some ‘shadow characters’ on the internet to discredit those who bring out the truth. In fact, many stories (to be honest, some of them may be actually the truth) which are not reported in mass main-stream media or deviated from the ‘acceptable’ reported stories, are discredited as ‘conspiracies’. Those who raise ‘conspiracies’ are being described as some kinds of introvert ‘wacko’ that are chasing their own shadows. In spite of the fact that, many of those so-called ‘wacko’ or ‘people with offbeat characters’ who are also happened to be scholars and experts of different well-respected institutions. Cuz, conspiracies are not just a weird thoughts, they are usually supported by a matrix of facts or evidence though some of them might be circumstantial. Rather than being raised for discussion and further investigation, conspiracies are being suppressed, discredited and being making fun off by the so-called mainstream. I just don’t think that is right.

Trust no one

Despite saying what I’ve said so far, I don’t mean that all conspiracies are true. However, I just don’t feel comfortable that many people are being manipulated by what they are told. I don’t think we should believe the mass media, nor the conspirators themselves unconditionally. We should exercise our intelligence to expose ourselves to a wider spectrum of information, and try to analyze them to understand how things are connected (aka the karma behind issues) and form our own opinions, rather that being passive accept what we should think. That’s why I would say for young people, with their relatively ample of time, lighter burden of responsibility, and more open-minded in acceptance of ideas, they should be encouraged to learn how to seek out a wider spectrum of news, to digest them against what are being told in the mainstream media, to then analyze them critically to form their own opinion of issues that are happening in our world. I think that has been the way that we have achieved in scientific advancement. In which, nothing is accepted without proof, suspicions are always investigated. Such methodology should be applied in seeking truth in non-scientific information as well.

What really matters

I always believe that human’s spiritual advancement is always lagged behind the developments of most other things such as technology, finances, and political systems. It is part of human nature that people do tell lies, powerful ones are control freaks, and most people put their own self-interests over the others. As such, we should look after our own, don’t just blindly accept what are being told and develop a critical mind to seek out the truth. That’s the only way we can improve ourselves. Without doing that, any perceivable advancement is simply building on mirage, that won’t last. Just use our God-given mind to think critically. Otherwise, we might just be a humanoid with a mind of a sheep, happily cruising our life in herds, what a waste!

Update

My blogging activity has been lagging recently. Just can't organize my mind to put in words properly. However, I do have few brief thoughts that I wanna share.

Bringing up a child is not easy. I got frustrated recently because of my son's discipline problem. I think he is old enough to understand what I want from him, he just doesn't comply with my instructions. Physical punishment is not my preference, but I did some anyway without getting the results that I want. I tried to reason with him, but I did lose my patience sometimes. I just think that I need to keep on trying.

I do believe that my son is good person. He is just a bit rebellion and got spoiled by few adults. I wholeheartedly feel that he will turn better if I can find the right way. I believe that I don't have unfair or unrealistic expectation on him like many parents do. I just want him to be a healthy, polite, and happy kid. I don't think that's too much to ask for.

The economy is boiling hot, the QE2 by the U.S. is just killing everyone in the world. It makes me worry for both short and long term. The devaluation of USD is just not good. I'm not comfortable with any other alternatives. The stock market is too hot. Gold and real estates are going crazy. RMB? EUR? JPY? don't trust any of them. Also, potential expense on my home front in coming years are just not very predictable. Need to stay a bit liquid. Though the whole situation doesn't make me lose sleep over, cuz I still thank God for having a job to go to, I do feel sad watching my capitals dwindle as time goes by.

The society is being wrapped by a growing negative sentiment. People don't have hope for a better future. The gap between the riches and the poor iswidening. The upward mobility of the poor and the middle class has been slowed down. With such unhealthy social atmosphere, I can see that the poor will stay poor for their generations to come while the middle class is struggling hard to stay where they are. Life is by no mean easy. The riches just ragging their fortune largely without moral as a result of their natural human greed instinct as well as the slack given by the government. Those civil servants just look the other sides. They are too comfortable in their cocoons and just do what they are told. The officials don't have the support from the people, and they just look after their personal interests after they left office. For those who are in higher office and those who are looking to be there down the road are all selfish SOBs. They know where the source of power is and simply do what they think they can to appeal to the power source. What the society in the long run needs become after thoughts. To be honest, I'm not optimistic of the future of our society. I'm not a radical person. I doubt I will take much action in person, but who know? When there is a justified cause that worth supporting, there are many forms of support that can be given. That's all I gonna say for now.
However, I've not lost my hope for human beings overall. There are still plenty of good people living all over the world and some of them are closely around us. We just need to pay attention, open our eyes and ears to realize their existence. Just read the news and talk to people, and we will see their good deeds.

On my peronal front, I just hope to get my house in proper order and be good. Life ain't no easy, but it is cherishable to live. I thank God everyday before I go to sleep, and only pray for my family and people that I know to stay healthy physically/psychologically, and safe. I never pray for wealth or fortune, that's what my parents taught me and I think they are right about that.

Well, enough blabbering for now. Peace!

Web Privacy

Few days ago, I was trying to find a link to a Youtube video that I thought I had posted on my Facebook account few months back. For the first time that I checked my posting history and really saw the whole history of my communication through Facebook to my friends in the last few years. As an avid listener of BOL of Cnet and being a person who pay attention to tech news, I know Facebook for sure has kept every piece of information of all its 500 millions+ members. Cuz, every bit of information is valuable to them, if not for now, would be for tomorrow when they or their partners would be able to figure out how to turn them to be money-making opportunities. Anyway, that personal search that I did just made me think about the whole issue of privacy in the cyberspace in these days and age, which is so different from what the world in pre-web 2.0 was.

Forgot who said it, but I always take it to my heart that, once information is out in the web, it will become public. You can put all privacy settings in place all you want, everything on the web once will be known by somebody. So, if somebody really wants to find something about you, they can, period! That’s why for the most private stuff that we have, we should keep that off from the web. You might thought that we can still safely keep our accounts/passwords in a password-protected file and save it in our hard-drive, it is 99.999% that it is safe, but it is not 100%. Our PC can still be hacked by malware, virus, spamware or whatever. So, we just need to remember this all the time about what we should expose ourselves in the web.

Back in the old days, I mean maybe a decade ago or so, when a candidate wants to run for public office, he/she would be scrutinized by the media about their backgrounds, or things that they said before. For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger ran for the Governor office in California, his dad‘s alleged relationship with Nazi was brought up, but it never became a serious issue that affect his candidacy, neither did his alleged womanizing history. The latter was more prominent as he was a movie star before and media was able to dig up his past relatively easier than other regular Joes. However, in these days and age, when everybody has a Facebook account (except the billion or so behind the Great Firewall), and we, as normal human beings with free minds, love to express our emotion and pour our thoughts out on Facebook for our friends to notice, we often forget that those words, pictures, voices, video will all become public records. Something doesn’t make much sense or harmless when it was said, could become an issue in future in situation that you would never think of.

Facebook checking or similar sort with other social sites have already been a common and acceptable practice by HR of some major corporations, not only in hiring stage, but also for staff monitoring. Detectives or insurance companies also use Facebook to collect supporting evidences and use them in court cases on their favor. I wouldn’t be surprise that it will become more commonly widespread to become even a routine that would ultimately affect every aspect of our lives. For example, schools will check our or even
our parents’ public web records to determine if we should be admitted. All companies, organizations and government agencies would check our web record history in making any decision towards our application of any sort. If that happens, new industries (web personal record professional search, web record person profiling and analysis, web record person modification, enhancement and masking, etc) will be created, as big money will be made. Then, whatever we say on purpose would be discounted, whatever we said freely in the past would become evidence or components of our personal profile for public review and criticism for judgment. Consequently, it will become very difficult to find ‘pure’ candidates for certain jobs in our society when the job natures are expected to be ‘defenders’ of justice or morality of some sort. For example, judges, priests, moral leaders, or head of organizations that promote fairness. Also, some professionals which may not as seriously regarded as the above but do also need to make moral judgments with conscience every now and then will be difficult to find as well, like teachers, police, doctors, or even political leaders.

If what I mentioned above would be true in future, I guess that our society will need to change accordingly or we will be forced to change somehow. Namely, we may have to give up previously high expectation and begin to accept the fact that it is close to impossible to find as many ideal candidates as we need for those professions. For example, when we see scandalous images of political candidates, through the work of spin-doctors, we will be forced or deceived to accept those are not really scandals or shameful matters of candidates. They are just their innocent histories like more of us do have, and we should focus on the candidates’ good sides, abilities, as well as their ‘intentions to do good’ instead. Would that happen someday? I don’t know.

Also, in terms of role models, there will very unlikely be any new one emerged in current times. Cuz, it would be so hard to find one without any dirt in the past got dug up by the media. Instead, we will begin to focus on good ‘acts’ as they become more visible, rather than finding a good person as a whole since everybody’s fault will be more accessible and visible as well. Kids in future would less likely to believe in role models, cuz they would say that if there is Youtube, HD recording, etc back in the days, those so-called role models in history will expose their bad deeds as well. Would George Washington only tell the truth all the time? Would Abraham Lincoln may discriminatory remarks of other sorts? Kids would think so.

Come to think of it, I think I’ve been trying my best to say things carefully on the web so far. Not that I will run for any office soon or if ever, but I always believe that we are responsible of ourselves. Not just for what we do in person, but what we say on the web as well. Cuz, you never know who will use what we have exposed to go against us down the road in what occasion. Also, I will teach my kid to take note of such as well. Surely, he will make mistakes, but I think it is my duty to teach him to become a responsible cybercitizen. I think that would be good for him regardless what he wanna do in future.

My view on...News

Being an avid reader of news myself who want to optimize my reading experience in terms of quality and quantity, I can’t help but to be very selective in choosing what articles I would like to read in my limited and precious free time. To be honest, I stopped buying newspaper since I learnt that news is available in internet more than a decade ago. Why would I spend money on killing more trees while there are more than half on a daily newspaper that I simply would not read? There are just tremendous amount of advantages of getting news via the net than on traditional newspaper that there is no contest between the two and it is no surprise to me that traditional newspapers are dying all over the globe.

However, how to pick what I want to read in the ‘ocean’ of news sites in the web? I don’t know how others are doing, but I do have my own way to navigate the ocean on daily basis to satisfy my urge of knowing what’s going on in the world. On average, I spend about an hour or more everyday on reading articles in the net. Certainly, I do still watch some cable news during dinner every night for being a passive receiver of broadcast news. Well, these days, I would consider watch evening news is just a supplementary way of receiving news that I wouldn’t feel bad for skipping it in occasions. So, what’s my ‘way’ of getting news on the web then?

First of all, there are usually five types of sites that I got my current event news from. Two of them are what I get the ‘relatively objective’ news; the other three are where I got the ‘opinions’ on news stories. Cuz I’m not always satisfied with some so-called objective news reporters, I do like to see what people think and how they react on those stories. That’s why I seek to read articles on both to give me more 3-D perspective of events.

The first type is the news sites. I go to news.google.com. To me, this is the master site of all. It is because I can get categorized stories by thousands in each. I can drill down in each category and by story if I want more. I think this site is in line with the original spirit of the internet, namely sharing of free information. Unless majority of individual sites are charging readers for access the details of their contents, typical reader like me will simply opt out of your site and move to other free sites to read the same story. I also use search function in the news.google.com a lot, cuz I like find out news of certain topic. In addition, I would go to the country specific page to see local news or use the search function to see some local perspective of some news being reported in the U.S. centric site. For example, I would go to Chinese and Korean news sites to see their reporting on Kim Jung Ii’s secret visit to China, rather than simply reading BBC or ABC for that. Besides Google news, I don’t go to other general sites of particular news organizations. Cuz, MSNBC wouldn’t link to CNN for reporting of the same story, so I just go to Google as a starting point for all.

However, as I mentioned above, I do go to second type of sites for news as well. Those sites are category specific sites. For example, I like reading movie news, NBA news, financial news,etc. Then, I will go to aint-it-cool-news, comingsoon.com, SI.com, or ESPN.com, fool.com for those news. In my opinion, Google news may be too big an ocean for specific type of news. Those sites on the other hand are more specific on their respective topic and with some quality analysts who can provide some insider reporting and opinions that I would be interested in.

The three other types of sites that I got analysis/opinions on news stories are analysis collection sites, blogs, and forums. Analysis collection sites such are Globalresearch, Counterpunch offer a collection of insightful in depth analysis of news events that it is just a pleasure to me to check them daily on geopolitics news stories. However, blogs and news forums does offer a more ‘balance’ and ‘quantified’ view of certain news which would be a good way for me to gauge the opinion of people rather than just individual specialists. I would not put much thought on the individual opinion of those bloggers or members of forums who may only voice out words like ‘XXX sucks!’. However, such opinion does give me a sense of what the general genuine opinion of the public is. Well, I know that there are still a lot of people who have opinion but not voice them out on the net or anywhere. Well, to me there are the ‘silence’ crowds that I just can’t help but ignore them.

What got me blogging this topic is after reading the latest interview of Steve Jobs which will be the topic of my next blog (first time ever that I would foretell what I’m gonna blog about next). One thing that he mentioned in D8 this year is that he doesn’t want professional journalism to die and left with only a world of bloggers. He believed that people will pay for access of news stories. Technology distribution is not the issue, but the marketing/pricing strategy is. Well, though I enjoy ‘free’ access of news for so long and kinda spoiled by that. It would be very difficult to convince me to open my wallet to pay for news. But would that still be possible? I wouldn’t rule out such possibility. I think Wall Street Journal is a really good example. It charges you to read their stories after giving you 5 free stories per day. I can see that if I really want to read their high-quality stories/analysis that I would pay to access them. However, it is gonna be a matter of give and take and convenience. If you want to charge me to read your news, first of all, you better be very good and exclusive, have to be much better than the free stuff. Also, if timing is critical, I can see that people would pay for time-critical data, like stock prices, but that won’t apply to breaking news. Cuz, as breaking news event is unfolding, there is just not too much to be reported as things may still need to be confirmed, also analysis wouldn’t be started without more info. So, it wouldn’t be worth paying for half-baked stories then, I guess. Going back to the give and take and convenience, the payment method has to be easy. I think there must be choices for charges available to readers, i.e. flat fee and micro-payment. Cuz, that would fit different reading habits. Somewhat like the consumption of music, you can either buy songs individually, or pay subscription fee for monthly limitless access. With the surge of tablet readers and the maturity of internet virtual payment system, I can see that paying for news is a viable in coming future.

Anyway, since the launch of iPad, the future of newspaper, magazines, or journalism in general has become a hot topic again. I think things will be ok at the end of the day, cuz, though the spirit of free market is always crude to some market players, it will no doubt makes the best choice eventually. Darwinism goes!

East vs. West on apology

Saving face is a very unique Eastern practice that I don't know where exactly it came from. However, it has become a very natural behavior that shared among all walks of lives regardless of their age, gender, wealth, education, etc. As long as they are 'immersed' in the Eastern culture, somehow they are brought into the 'face-saving' mode. One typical example is my dad, I've never heard him said 'I'm sorry' or even apologized for anything in his life. Certainly, he is no saint and he made mistakes. Being the head of the family, it is just not in his gene to apologize to his family. When I got older, I don't really care if he apologized or ever, cuz, I don't expect that from him and it doesn't really matter to me. Don't get me wrong that I'm not here to criticize my dad. I simply cite him as a personal example that I see which is very common in the society, especially among the older generations.

The younger generations are seemed to be a bit different, perhaps it has to do with the fact that 'public apology' is a common practice in the West. With the power of media, they saw public figures saying sorry in news conferences or in the press. They are exposed to the idea of public apology. But, that's only confined to the public figures. Young people these days are too spoiled and corrupted by the twisted values of their parents that many of them don't even know they are wrong. So, what's the point of saying sorry if they don't even know what's wrong with them!

Come to think of it, 'saving face' and 'admitting wrong' are not certainly contradicted each other. Japanese are famous for deep bows in public for their wrong doings, but they also adopt face-saving as well. I guess one thing that make them a bit different from us is that they can clearly distinguish the difference between 'admission of defeat' and 'apology for wrong doing'. The former is after trying your best to do the right thing but still fail in achieving your goal, then bravely admitting such fact. It may still include an apology in the speech, saying something like 'sorry for not trying hard enough (which may not be true)', and 'sorry for causing disappointments to supporters (which is for being polite rather)'. However, the main point is to bring the fact of defeat to the public, then get is over with. The best part is the aftermath, by putting the 'emotion of guilt or shame' of the past in the past, they can focus and improve again in future to strike the gold. However, 'apology for wrong doing' is different. It simply means what has been done is wrong! aka. I screwed up! Japanese does apologize for such, which would go the the same stream as the previous - they take the blame and move on.

On the contrary, the Chinese are not custom to do neither. Some of them may have the heart, but not enough gut to do it in public. Usually, exceptions only happen to those who studied or brought up aboard in the Western culture which views public apology as a common practice. Still, they may only apologize to the close ones or in private, unless their immediate environment adopt such practice. For example, in some western companies or institutions. Western culture just doesn't share the same level of face-saving belief as we do. It doesn't mean that they are shameless. They just can take the fact as fact. Perhaps, it has something to do with Christianity which teaches forgiveness. Eastern culture does preach forgiveness as well, but I think the extent of which is certainly not enough. We perhaps just don't like to let the past goes, so we may forgive at this moment, but we don't forget. People are more inclined to remember what we did wrong then how sincere we were in our apology. Maybe, that has something to do to our stubbornness in admitting we are wrong regardless how wrong we are. Such belief is so widespread and shared to a point that authority figures in our governments, businesses, schools, and even religious organizations, would not apologize for their faults, as long as they are not illegal, moral wrong doings are being hidden. For them, silence is truly golden. They not only keep their mouths shut, they also want to shut the media up from investigating, reporting, and chasing them for their wrong doing! The saving face belief even drives people to cover their wrong doings with lies or additional wrong doings. All I can say is that...what a shameful mess!

I'm just an insignificant member of the society that can't change much. However, I would practice of apology in my home to my wife and my kid. Not sure what difference will that make, but I do feel good at least and have a good night sleep afterwards. It is not an excuse for making mistakes again, but at least I would put a stop of them and hopefully would do better tomorrow....

Narcissism of a City

When you have this...
Why did you spend HK$9,000,000 on this...
And then spend another HK$6,000,000 on this....Actually, what make people come to your place are most likely because of these.... (not that I agree with some of the items or their rankings)....
It is so easy to spend OTHER people's money....

A View on Extramarital affair

The other night this week, I caught up with some old colleagues to chit-chat. Three of us are married men, and the other one is a single female. We had a good time chatting in a bar, various subjects, one linked to another, were brought up. I had a good time there, cos it is nice to see some old faces to see how things are going, not just for them, but to learn news of other folks that we know as well….

One of the topics that came up was about extramarital affair. We all three men similarly voiced out that we would not get into an affair while we are married. Well, some readers may say that any man vows not to do it is exactly the one who will. I can’t speak for others, though based on what I knew about my ex-colleagues, they don’t seem to be the kind that will get into affair with other women. Anyway, we did voice out our opinions why we won’t do it.

Firstly, we find that handling a woman is already a tough job. Handling means making the relationship smooth and pleasant (or able to live with at least). We all thinks that handling a second one would take much more than double the current effort. Cos, the premise is that if you are into cheating, you need to have very good memory on what you have said to whom. If you tell a lie (most likely you have to in order to cover your tracks), you will most likely need to create another to cover it. If it becomes a relationship, just think about how many things you might have said all through the year! You just can’t keep check of so many things in your head. Also, women have relatively better memory and more suspicious mind. They can sniff on clues for any slippage of tongue. That’s tough to lie for long.

Secondly, we thought that only men with certain characteristics can and will cheat. It is not necessary to do with their financial status or appearance. We didn’t go deep to figure out what those characteristics are; we just think that none of us fit such mold. Come to think of it. I kinda buy the idea that ‘cheating men’ are different. I heard it before that women and men are like fishes and cats. I.e. which cat doesn’t eat fish? The analogy is only partially right. I’m a normal man (I think). I like woman. I like to look at beautiful things and human beings. Certainly, if by any chance, I came across beautiful women on the street or something, I will look at them. But for me, same as what I told my wife, that’s about it. For men, looking at women doesn’t mean they will think about them and fantasizing them afterwards. Even for those who will fantasizing them, it doesn’t mean they will carry any actions to follow up in reality. Let alone trying to meet those women, wooing them, having an affair with them, etc. That applies to both married and single men, I think.

Some times, it has something to do with the financial status and the appearance of the men, cos they make a difference on whether it would be easier to have an affair or not provide that he REALLY wants it. However, it is all in the mind of the men.

In my opinion, the first thing is about what is the priority of the man. Cos, having an affair is very resource-consuming. Unless, he put having an affair with a woman as a high, very high priority, he easily can find many other hobbies, interests to spend money and time on. Yes, many men who are the so-called ‘geeks’ or ‘nerds’ have talent and are good in certain hobbies or interests, are difficult to find women. It could be a chicken-and-egg situation. In fact, many geeks or nerds are also married men as well. So, it’s not like all geeks can’t find women, so they don’t have affairs. They are just simply happy with what they have and not going out looking for more.

I think men that are relatively prone to cheat are those so called ‘lady’s men’ or ‘sweet-talkers’. They may not be rich or handsome. They just know women better and generally get along with women really well. Well, I think it is a major character, but having that character only means that they can cheat easier than others - doesn’t mean they will cheat. Many men in ‘people’ business have such character and skill with women. That’s how they can survive and succeed in their careers. Certainly, I think having such character is just like having a knife. It doesn’t make you to stab someone simply because you have a knife. Actually, after reading the book ‘Tipping Point’, trying to borrow a thought form from it, there gotta be a ‘Tipping Point’ to make that man cheat. For that to happen, it would really be case by case. Maybe that man is not happy with his marriage, maybe he wants some challenges, maybe he want to have a revenge on his wife, etc.

I don’t know about others, I just think that cheating in marriage is just not right. Cos, just thinking about if the opposite of my wife cheats on me. That really hurt! Why would you want to do something to hurt someone that you love? If you don’t love that person, why you marry her? If you think that you loved her before, but not anymore. Then, why are you still with her? That wastes her time and yours! Instead, you should try to work on the relationship, to fix it, to make it up, to make things work again! Rather than going out to seek someone else, we should think about the commitment that we made to get marry in the first place. Also, we should think about the good times that you and your partner have together. If you really want to fix it and tell her about it, the subsequent effort to be put would be worthy and the return could be even more than you expect. If things don’t work out, then depart from each other peacefully after sorting out logistics. Mutually wish good luck and move on. Don’t get things messy and ugly, I doubt that’s what anyone in the relationship wants.

Looking from another angle, what are men really looking for at the end of the day in an affair? Love?hm…..maybe…if there is really love at the end, most likely is not the original intention. Most men who want to cheat will go for younger prettier women for the sake of ‘scoring’. I would guess in many cases, the cheating man would not treat the woman on equal basis, but regarding her as an object that is dumb and to be easily manipulated. The cheating man only thinks about what he wants and doesn’t think that the woman does have a mind of her own. He may use his ‘resources’, i.e. time, money, lies, to charm her to give him what he wants. After that, when he realized that the woman also wants something which are mostly likely not what he has thought (if ever) she wants. Then, he will realize that he is in ‘deep shit’. That’s also when things turn ugly for everybody involve.

If a man thinks, I mean ‘THINKS’, about what are the pros and cons of having an affair, what would be the possible consequences and their respective possibilities, he most likely won’t cheat in the first place. Can the quick fun really outweigh the troubles that have to go through, the resources that have to spend, and the potential risks on cheating your wife? I don’t know about others, such deal is ‘no go’ for me.

Deception and the Truth

When we were kids, adults always taught us to tell the truths. Don’t lie. This teaching can perhaps be traced back for thousands of years. Come to think of it, it is the 8th Commandments in the Ten Commandments, for God sake: Thou shall not lie! The reason why it has been taught for thousands of year, I think it is because lying is deep in our gene; it is part of our nature. Since lying is kind of a ‘double-edged’ sword, it demands skills and the results of lying could be detrimental, so we simply teach our kids that lying is not good and don’t do it, in order to avoid the trouble of dealing with the consequences of telling lies. Of course, it has never worked.

I think lying or deception is a tool that mostly for serving our self-interest. It could be for getting something that we don’t have or avoid losing something that we cherish, or protect ourselves from being hurt physically or psychologically. Recently, I’ve discovered a very interesting site and read some articles there. Certainly, as a well…relatively educated adult, I know that the web is wild wild west; anyone can put up a site and say whatever they want. Many sites have their predominant views on issues (that reminded me of Fox vs. CNN). Anyway, I don’t 100% buy everything that I read is truth, but it is nice to see how different people‘s views and voiced out their opinions on issues, particularly something that I’m interested.

The site mostly focuses on some large ‘macro’ or ‘global’ issues. Those that I’m particularly interested are so-called disclosing the real truth or initiatives behind many power institutions or countries on many issues which are actually affecting millions to billions of people’s lives. For example, the Afghan war, the global financial bailout of banks, globalization, etc. Of course, those issues are not as ‘sexy’ as ‘balloon boy’ or some sensational celebrities’ scandals, that’s why most of the public will not pay too much attention to them. Anyway, I find those issues are actually more interesting and thought-provoking.

As more and more stories that I’ve read, use my limited IQ, I would say that my view is more of a minority than the mass. I wouldn’t say that I’m a believer of all conspiracies. However, I’m quite skeptical of many things’ hidden agenda than simply taking the face value of the words that the government or the powerful elites have said. I would not say most of what they said are lies, but I think what they are practicing is the more advanced skills of “not telling the whole truth”.

You can find many books about how to conduct public communication/presentation in order to serve your self-interests. You can lie which has legal or social repercussion. You can present your message by wrapping them into something else, so people has to read between the lines to find out what you want to say. Or, you can tell the truth especially those that the audiences want to hear, but not telling the whole truth which is something very commonly used by many public figures when they are being questioned by the media. Usually, what is more important is not what they said, but what they didn’t say.

For example, the President would say that we do this and that for democracy and freedom of the people. That sounds really good, it is political correct, and that’s many his followers would like to hear and his opponents have nothing to pick on. However, the real truth is that outside the surface of freedom and democracy, the core is actually like an onion. The next layer is all about national interests. It is less sexy but it is still understandable, that’s actually what the President or elected government suppose to do. Then, the next layer could be the definition of those so-called ‘national interests’. Are they really the interests of the nation or certain part of the nation, or interests of certain groups/individual? That’s actually the core of whole thing, cos it is really complicated with the web of interconnected interests among different forces behind the public figures. That’s neither what the public want to hear nor the ‘Godfathers’ behind the scene want the public to know. In fact, the real truth is most likely very ugly!

I’ve no time or capability to investigate or discover the real truth behind many things. Nonetheless, reading what others’ have found out or their speculations is just enough fun for me. As I said, I neither believe 100% on words from the public figures nor the conspiracy-activists. However, since I believe that lying is part of our gene, and many national policies or decisions can cause such tremendous gains and losses to some groups and the mass, I would more incline to believe that there are many hidden agendas and stories behind the headlines. Cos, if everybody is telling the truth, our world won’t be this messy.

Drugs

There have been news about teenagers and celebrities on drugs lately. Well, drug is nothing new, it has been with human beings for thousands of year. It has never gone away, and it won't as long as human exists. What should be thought about is to study why somebody use it, but some don't, and how to manage it.

In the old old days, even for now, folks on drugs because they give them pleasure. The major difference between nowadays and back then are the knowledge of health effects and legal implication of drugs.

Back in the history, the rich did drugs for leisure, to bond with others, a mere social event. On a personal level, they found drugs pleasurable and help them to relax. For the poor, drugs are simply a way out of their miserable reality. Regardless the rich or the poor, they didn't know the long term medical problem that they would have when they were addicted to drugs. So, part of that was ignorance. Also, they were indulged in the short term pleasure. They just didn't want to think about the future. Besides, there were not that many rules on drugs. The matter was really whether you could get it or not. The rules are more to do with the financial aspect of it. Like should the government tax on it, who could distribute them, etc.

Nowadays, people's addiction to drugs for similar reasons at the personal level like our ancestors. The difference is that there are tremendous amount of medical studies and proof that drugs are harmful to our body. If you wanna die young, and suffered a long period of time of miserable pain, rejected by society and broke, then do drugs. Otherwise, better not even touch them. Also, there are the legal aspects that monitor the production, distribution, and usage of drugs. With the illegal stamps on most of them, it creates an economy around drugs, that make people die for/of drugs without even taking them themselves.

I think that at a personal level, people should not take drugs. Cos, most people are weak, though they deny it, drugs do have an addictive effect. However, I don't think it should be treated as a illegal act. Cos, I think it is better to look at it as a medical and moral problem rather than a legal issue. I would say if you take drugs, your body will go haywire, and will not function properly. So, you need medical attention to help you quit. From a moral point of view, you do drugs and make yourself incapable to perform your own duties on an acceptable manner. You should be shameful to yourself, your family, and as a member of the society. Taking drugs should be made it as a sinful or shameful act like committed adultery or prostitution. They would be more appropriate and effective in terms of prevention. At least, as long as drugs are legal, it will destroy the drug economy and the current resources that are spent on dealing with the problem can be allocated better on medical treatment and prevention. Certainly, certain drugs on certain medical usage should be monitored, regulated and acceptable.

I don't think my view is new, but certainly mine is not in line with the mainstream. Sometimes, I think it doesn't hurt to step back and think out of the box, especially for some problems that seems to have no void solution.