On one of my last evenings in China during my sabbatical in Spring 2008, I was collecting data on emotional expressions by sitting outside a small classroom as my participants filled out a survey (all in Mandarin; thank you my dear English major assistants), and on completion they gave me a shy thank you or tried out some English, and I handed over a 10 yuan note -- except one student stayed and sat on plastic chairs with me and talked for the remaining hours as my participants came and went. We later went to a restaurant and he helped me order and we talked for 2 more hours and 2 days later I was on a plane for Hong Kong...
Hi, Prof.
How are you going these days? Sorry for that long time we have not touch since I was always immersed in routines that I confronted. During the past half year, I fortunately involved in Olympic Games in Beijing 2008 and enjoyed nearly 2 month over there. Also, I as exempted into the Hong Kong Model United Nations 2009 in HK this year. All of the above I mentioned extremely enlarged my view of point on global business and borden my perspective of international politics. Here I have some experience to share with. Wish it would not bring extra burdens for your busy teaching calendar.
Congratulations for the world hero Barack Obama inaugurated as the US president this year. As most of friends, I was excited for the victory of democracy and free humanity. However, at the same time, I still remember the point you taught me that the corruptness really exists in great American. Your assertion, frankly speaking, shocked me and even influenced my sense of worth positively. Never had I expected the US---the dream land of freedom and equality in the world---has such a big problem in recent years.
After that moment, I had the desire to explore the truth. I talk to my foreign tutor in my university, who is also a good friend of mine, how you feel about China and why you leave your homeland at the age of 60. Unexpectly, he response with a negative voice that US is not a perfect place and he can felt the vigor emerging in China. Similarly, I felt the regret from the bottom of his heart and that impulse my curiosity toward the deeper research in the different and similarity between China and the US.
Under his guidance, I read some books and watched some movies. They are fantastic and you may never know how excited I am right now because I seem to find out something unbelievable and want to share my excitement with you. Money Master, a firm made for recovering the history of American real history that several American President were assassinated for their efforts to be against banking system. OBAMA DECEPTION, wrote by Webster Tarpley and directed by Alex Jones, also a film made recently and I just watched, reveal the secrets behind the executive operation in the US and how the Non-government organizations and off-shore banks control the policy maker. The film advocates the world citizens to stop the establishment of global rules and refuse the dictatorship. This assertion makes people upset, but maybe real. I wonder did you focus on these films and have the same feeling.
In this film, the author quotes what President Thomas Jefferson wrote to the secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin (1802), that “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the band] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.” I hope it will never appear in US.
Here is my newly assumption. I consider you may be interested in this field and glad to share my points with you. Sincerely wish it would be disturbing. And you do not need to response if you were so busy over there.
Best regards
Readers --Have any of you seen these movies? Advice, comments?
P.S. When I spoke with this student, I talked about the US as a kleptocracy, especially the Bush administration, but I did not mean to convey that kleptocrats only came to power in "recent years."
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9 comments:
Hi, this is Jerry, friend/former student of your husband. Alex Jones is the provocateur behind a lot of the so-called 9/11 Truth movement. I haven't seen the new Obama movie, but his basic idea is that a shadowy cabal runs the modern world and that we're edging ever closer to a totalitarian global dictatorship. So he's probably at least half right.
Hm, I see... But now more advice needed. My Chinese student friend initially believed that the U.S. government was sincerely benevolent (although possibly misguided) in that it was striving to do the best thing for the American people. Thus, he believed the U.S invaded Iraq to "make the U.S. stronger." The worst action he was willing to lay at the feet of the U.S. leaders was that their goals were things like access to natural resources and/or markets. The U.S. government was thus seen as a powerful and ambitious father, working to maintain or improve the current position of the family (country).
What I said that shocked him during our cafe talk in April 2008 Beijing was the following: that individuals pulled strings to invade Iraq so that those specific individuals and their cronies could become wealthy off of government contracts (Halliburton), regardless of whether it impoverished the treasury and made Americans vulnerable to more terrorism. This shocked him; the poor boys' eyes were like saucers.
Now I learn that he inferred I meant that the US is run by a shadowy cabal. Instead, its just run by businessmen who are seeking any means possible to increase their rate of profit. Sources I'd recommend are The Shock Doctrine; "Halliburton's Army: How A Well-Connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized The Way America Makes War"; or even the older "Economic Hit Man"; not the 9/11 Truth movement.
Have you seen anything that helps differentiate these very different criticisms of US policy?
Here's a link to The Obama Deception movie:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7886780711843120756
Also, here's the main ("sales") page of The Obama Deception movie:
http://www.obamadeception.net/
and a review of the movie:
http://riseuprochester.org/2009/03/14/review-the-obama-deception-by-alex-jones/
Yet after having watched it and read comments by people, I keep my hopes up for the US and continue my support for Obama which started from the time I learned about his book "The Audacity of Hope" which was way back before he ran for presidency.
I stumbled upon an interesting article related to Obama written for Forbes Magazine by Peter Robinson, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
This article is titled "Comandante Obama" and was published last Feb 27, 2009. Your thoughts appreciated on this. You can even repost it like the one you did for Bernard Keenan's article on communism as a viable alternative.
Here's the link:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/26/obama-castro-chavez-opinions-columnists_stimulus.html
What's with this Fairness Doctrine thing everywhere? All the nut-job Republicans have grabbed onto this as the new Armageddon. I guess Rush doesn't like anyone invade his turf and his armies are on the attack. It's just like Halliburton: using ideological dogma for the enrichment of a few, or, in this case, one.
Now that they're taking away bonuses from banks that took government money, perhaps it's time to get back some of those outrageous payments to Halliburton executives and shareholders, payments funded by the American people? Oh, yeah, and didn't we pay Rush to go on the air for the army or something? Get that money back!!!
Hi g3m1n1,
What language are you writing in on your blog?
Thanks for that link. I had forgotten about the fairness doctrine. It was humorous to think of how right-wing radio would become commercially unviable if it had to be paired with left-wing radio -- except they were a little harsh on Al Franken. Not all left-of-center comedians are boring. What about Bill Maher? Didn't The Nation or some other group sponsor a humorous left-leaning show a while ago? I listened a few times and generally the content but the ratio of new-to-old information wasn't high enough for my high-need-for-cognition brain.
I am undecided about Obama now. He's not a working class hero. He's doesn't want fundamental change. But I already owned up to being a craven reformist, not a communist. I just keeping hoping that everything will get better. And since I was a teenager, the inequality in the US has gotten incredibly worse. Since I was in my 30s, worse. Keeps getting worse...
Hiligaynon?
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