Man the lifeboats!!! The United States is leaking...

If it isn't the CIA report about the spread and growth of Jihad due to the Iraq war, then it was the leak caused by Guidant and Abbott Labs over the deal to buy Guidant way from Boston Scientific. If not the board of Hewlett Packard leaking info through its recently departed chairwoman, then it is the Bush administration leaking the identity of our own CIA operative Valerie Plame.

The United States has adopted and implemented a new strategy in Machiavellian tactics from the boardroom to the oval office. Today we are a culture obsessed with keeping secrets from each other, only to strategically leak information very carefully out to the public in order to ruin people's careers and spin the facts to support our particular cause.

The media is in league with executives and polititians in order to spin the public about who is rating out who in order to keep the Presidents poll numbers from rising or sinking.

We are a divided nation hell bent on rooting out the enemy which in many cases in our own selves, and exposing them to the public media in order to demonize those that disagree with our cause or ideas.

Hugo Chavez thought he was merely stating the facts when he was standing at the rostrum at the UN last week. In reality he was leaking a whole vat of spin that many have not had the proper vernacular to understand at after 6 years of chaos in the world. There was no call to some obscure reporter at the New York Times or Fox news. He just bypassed all of that secrecy and blasted his strategy from the podium at the United Nations.

You may think that this is nothing new if you are a student of political science. Then again, you may think that each new fall season brings the same forecasts for a long winter.

Either way, we have to look at ourselves in the mirror each day and see if the image we see is doing something good or doing something evil that day.

When parents get old...

We all have parents of some kind. Some biological, some step parents, some nuclear parents etc etc.

Some of us are close to our parents, some are estranged and some have never even met them.

For those who maintain some sort of relationship with their parents, inevitably they run into the fact that they are growing older and that you now are responsible for them instead of them being responsible for you, if you are to keep the relationship growing and consistant that is. This is just one of the laws of nature I find.

It is at this point where communication styles and heirarchy perceptions must be discussed, in order to continue with any sort of harmionic overtones that may be part of the relationship. This inevitably comes up, and if it is not addressed and discussed then the potential for the growth away from one another is inevitable. This will in tern lead to damage, lonliness and insecurity for both individuals in the relationship.

Regardless of how difficult it is to discuss such matters, it must be done in order to move on and grow further into ones life. As our parents get older, they become more vulnerable and fearful of life, as they are not able to cope as they used to when they had all of their faculties in top shape. It is indeed cathartic to realize this without them actually admiting to such a phenomena. So when it does, and the signals are right there in front of your face, it is time to take action and formulate some sort of dialogue that addresses and raises awareness of new perceptions in the realationship.

To ignore such signals is analogous to losing an arm or a leg.

The Extreme Pressure of Being Chinese...

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In a recent article published in the New York Times, a trend in Shanghai was discussed where young and affluent Chinese parents are obsessed with sending their children to schools that teach "skills" that will better equip them to interact with the west.

Golfing, Polo, playing the violin, eating and dining manners, polite relations with the opposite sex were all sited as desired skills that parents of today's children did not learn when they were growing up and therefore want for their own children.

When I lived in Singapore for a few years, I grew to appreciate the duality of being Chinese. Singapore is around 72% Chinese, and I noticed that all had to go through life not only perfecting their mastery of Chinese culture, but also learn western language and culture in order to compete and survive.

In talking with a very close and intimate friend in Korea, she also concurred with the pressures put on Korean children to perform not only academically, but know about and possess modern skills that will help them compete in life and integrate well on a social level with other cultures, specifically the rich and powerful west.

Parents in China and other Asian nations have to shell out huge sums of money for these extra curricular schools that teach their children things that they as parents are not capable of teaching to their children. My female friend in Korea and I both concurred that it is most ideal to have parents teach their children the things they need in life to not only compete and survive, but to also enjoy an delight in. (ice skating, hitting a baseball, playing the guitar, surfing, scuba diving etc.)

However, admitting that you as a parent are not able to teach your child how to play golf because you have to work 80 hours a week in order to pay for his or her golf lessons is an astute judgment on the part of the parent. At least the child is being taught and guided while you are not there to do it yourself. Corporations love this kind of employee commitment.

This poses a very interesting question at the developing globalised world of capitalism, culture and socialisation of modern individuals. Are we better off sending our children to others to learn the things we cannot as parents teach them, or do we not work as hard and as long, in order to develop ourselves into better teachers for our children? In the process saving money along the way, and growing closer to our children as opposed to farther away from them while they learn valuable skills needed not only to survive in this world, but to enjoy and appreciate life as well.

The saying is true...

Live in New York City too long and you grow hardend.

Live in San Francisco too long and you grow soft.

The 5th season

Its after labour day now, and all is quieting down in the San Francisco bay area.

The kids are back in school, gas prices are falling, the days are getting shorter, the foggy afternoons will dissipate and the warm sunny weather will only increase now until winter.

I so look forward to the next 7 weeks where the sunsets at Ocean Beach are the most spectacular, the wine country will begin its harvest and the scent of processed grapes will fill the air.

The sport of surfing begins its annual quality improvement program, and footballs will replace baseballs.

The Opera and the Symphony crank up their fund raising efforts, and I will pull out my golf clubs and head north to get in a few rounds before winter sets in.

I'll put away my flip flops and linen pants only to take out my leather jackets and scarves. The crabs will come into season, I'll make ratatouillle, and I'll switch from drinking summer white wines to cabarnets, zinfandels and burgundies....yummy!

I'll begin to listen to my collection of Jazz music again, and let all of that loud frenetic and fast paced music of the summer sit idle now on my hard drives and mP3 players.

I think it is this time of the year that keeps me here is San Francisco over any other. I have always said I would move to Hong Kong in a heartbeat, but if I were to leave the city by the bay and make such a transition, I would still return for the months of September and October...

The 5th season...

America's Polygamy problem

It is rather ironic that in my return to California I traveled through Utah.

Lately the media is filled with stories of this Warren Jeffs character who is presumed to have organized many such teenage marriages as well as allegedly fathered over 75 children himself in numerous marriages to women.

I must say that although the scenery of Utah is some of the most beautiful I have ever scene, the place definitely has an eerie vibe to it because of the people there.

Case in point, I was in need of some breakfast as I was nearing Provo, Utah yesterday and eyed a sign for a diner along highway 6. I decided to stop and see if I could find a some needed fuel for my body.

As soon as I walked in my radar when crazy as I saw what was my first taste of Mormon style living. A dining area that was also part of the hap hazard retail area. Over half of the 8 or so uncleared tables had meals half eaten by customers who had left. There were numerous children ranging from ages 2 to 4 running around the place yelling and screaming. There also were numerous signs indicating that restrooms were for paying customers only. (there were no homeless people in this rural region) Needless to say I gave this establishment a miss.

Later on down the road, I stopped at yet another diner for my breakfast and my radar readings were confirmed yet again. Although this place was much cleaner and more organized, the same scene prevailed. Loads of young children yelling and screaming. Each young white couple was accompanied by at least 2 children and some had as many as 4. No couples, no other ethnicities besides Caucasian, no seniors and no friends out for Sunday brunch together.

My scratching the surface in Utah brings me to the conclusion that there is something definitely wrong going on in Utah...

Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park