Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Congradulations to Barack Obama

I will try to keep this a rare thing. I normally don't post my political views on my blog, but I thought this is simply too big to ignore. Those who know me personally know that I've been an Obama supporter for a long time. In fact, I've been a supporter since 2006 when he announced his candidacy. Personally speaking, I don't agree with a lot of his policies, but I've always supported him. I believe that the leader of America should be a truly unique person with strong leadership qualities. The policies are formulated by the advisers and other members of the party. I will never find a candidate whose policies I agree 100% with. However, true leaders have something different. They have the ability to inspire the nation to do greater things. They have the ability to get the young people to believe in themselves and believe in the nation. They have the ability to give vision to the people, so that they can have hope and optimism. It's like in sports. The best leaders may not happen to be the best player/athlete, but their leadership inspires team mates to be better than they could ever be alone. That's what I always saw in Obama. He inspires a lot of people (including myself) to work hard for the greater good of the world. He gives me hope that this present quagmire will be over. Somtimes, having confidence in life is the only placibo we need to achieve greater things. Maybe all this inspiration and enthusiasm will not succeed (and it is hard to with the current economic situation), but he can't be any worse than George Bush. We will have at least a president that is respected by the rest of the world, an intelligent man at the helm and change the way the world thinks about America. Just by the virtual of having a black man elected, it tells the world that America is not just ruled by a bunch of old white man. But that it really is a land where anyone can do anything. That alone would change and has changed the way that the rest of the world thinks about America. This really is something no other candidate can do.

And when he was making his acceptance speech, I felt like crying. When I first came to North America and learning about the culture here, my first hero was Martin Luther King. I remember that goosebumps I had when I first heard the "I have a dream" speech. So, when Obama went back on the civil rights movement back in the days, it was almost too much for me to bear. It was amazing for not only the fulfillment of an old dream, but the start of a new one. Even though Obama is black and I am Chinese, I've always felt that I could relate to him. I related to him as someone who was born into a situation without much expectations, but managed to do well in life with the support of a loving family. When he spelt out a dream, he was not only doing it for black people, mixed-racial people or single parent people, but also for those who on the surface do not seem to share a life story with him. I'm a Canadian living in America, so I'm caught in the economic downfall like everyone else is. I wish that the change he speaks of will become beneficial to people in America and the rest of the world.

As for his policies, I personally don't support a lot of them. I'm very fiscally conservative and also believe that offshore drilling should be allowed and nuclear power should be the largest part of a clean air initiative. I like Ron Paul the most. I personally think that his economic policies would've been the most positive for America, but they are too radical for the main stream media and the public. Basically, I like the old school conservatism that believed in small government, pragmatic foreign policy and low taxes (which no one can label the present day Republicans). So despite having such a leaning, I never looked away from Barack's character, leadership and intelligence. These are qualities that I did not see to the same degree in any other candidates.

19 comments:

Unknown said...

Congratulations to him indeed. Fantastic victory and even greater acceptance speech. I doubt he can implement all his promises made during the election, but at least he's trying change for the better.

Jiang said...

Feng, you like him it is okay, and I DO NOT LIKE HIM!!!! He simply speak sweat words to get people to vote for him, and TRUST me there is no way he is going to fullfil his promises such as: free health care, free college education, and create lots of jobs. Just get this Feng, America and most American people do not want to work hard at all, I personally am a Chinese as well and proud to be one, currently live in America. I was dissapointed by this society.
Most people here especially blacks, and hispanics take things for granted. There are a lot of people here simply want others to work hard for them and live onl wrefare!!! We Chinese here in Amercia work SO HARD and has there been any reward??? NO!! We are stil dicrimniated and we particully Asian men have to work at least three times harder to achieve the same resluts!!!
Look, Feng. Obama will just turn out to be another Bill Clinton expcept he is not neary as SMOOTH, so even though he was no the president of US. There will be very few things he can do.

Jiang said...

BTW, Li. I know why most of minority here in the US anc Canada like Feng and you support Obama, but GET THIS!! Because you two fell kinda inferieor!! So you think having a black president will make you EQUALL!!

But sorry to say this that it aint gonna do SH!T. People here in most people here in America simply can not get alone, even Asian themselves. Plus now the economy is so BAD, what do you think Obama can do???

Feng said...

If you don't like Obama, that's fine, don't insult people (especially ethnic people) in America.

People around me in New York work a lot harder than people in China. Have you been in China recently? There are the people that work 80 hours weeks in the factory and then there are the normal people working public sector jobs. I couldn't believe how little people worked in China. They spent all of their time playing Mah-Jong in lunch.

My friends in New York are having good weeks if they work 55 to 60 hours a week and some of them work 90 hour weeks. You clearly don't know what working hard means. After living in New York for over 2 years, I will never think that Americans don't work hard again. Everyone around me are working for the American Dream no matter how far it might be from them. Chinese people aren't the only hard workers, I can guarantee you that.

Jiang said...

Blah blah blah. See, Feng again you are posting BULL CRAP!!!! If Americans work sooooooooo hard then why so many jobs are outsourced??? Why China make so many products????? If all chinese like you do is playing Ma Jong in lunch then how can they are getting hired while sooo many americans are being lay OFF???

ANSEWR ME!!!! Also, you constantly you see Americans go on strike, we just see sooo many California workers go on strike even Machinest in Boeing strike, they NEVER APPRIECIATE THE JOB!!!! That is why the new Boeing 787 suffered further delay!! YES there are Americans work very hard?? But how many compare to CHINESE???? If they work soooooo HARD then why are Asians so dominate in school?? All the good US University are pack with people like ME!!!!

GET this FENG, I know you!! Deep inside of your heart you feel KINDA INFERIOR, THAT IS WHY YOU ARE CHRISTIAN and I AM NOT!! I am not insulting anyone, I am speaking the truth!!

My mother and I live in America, where she WORK SOOOO HARD in this country, and SHE NEVER PLAY MA JONG you stupid!!! She came to this country with just 2000$, she bought a car and start working 60 hours a week and within i year she had her own bussiness. We hire many American workers and ALMOST EVERYONE ONE OF THEM SUCKS!!! We hired almost 5 hispanic workers, most of them steal and doest not even care about cumsomers. White is a little better but still they demand a lot, such as higher pay lower work load and such. Only Asians work pretty HARD!!!

Jiang said...

BTW, Feng. Do you know how hard Chinese labors work in China. LET ME tell you this!!! Most of them work at least 60 hours a week!!!!

YOU STUPID, If you say Americans work soo hard, then why People here in American all work minumim work hours which is only 40 hours a week?? Here in California Public and privite stores Open at 9am and are ALL CLOSED at 5 PM which is exactly 8 hours a DAY??? TELL ME YOU IDOIT WHERE DO YOU GET THE IDEA THAT PEOPLE IN NY WORK 60, 80 hours a WEEK??? Even if someone work 50 hours a week they always want extra pay!!! Which is ok, but then again I HAVE NEVER SEEN any govenment or even private jobs that are willing to work more than 50 hours!!!

Jiang said...

You see FENG, I REALLY DO NOT LIKE YOU anymore. You are really PATHITIC NOW!!!

You say some people work 90 hours a week!!! HERE JUST DO A LITTLE MATH!!! 90/7=12.857 hours a DAY!!! You know what that means?? If you sleep 6 hours which is minum plus 13 hours that is 19 and then you eat, plus cleaning, plust the time to work and you also need at least one day rest!!! THAT MEANS IT IS NOT POSSIBLE!!!! If some RETARD like what you say work that HARD then he or she is a RETARD!! cause soon or later they will be so physical and mentally exhausted they will neither DIE due to sickness or catch DEADLY desese like Cancer. WHO WILL WORK THIS HARD FOR MONEY?? WHAT IS MORE IMPORTANT??? YOUR LIFE OF SOME American Dream??? What is AMERICAN DREAM?? ANSWER: own a car, own a house, have a stable income!! THAT IS IT!!! WHAT IS CHINA DREAM?? ANSWER: own a car, own a house, have a stable income and be a good citizen who are respected by the society!! IF RETARD FENG IS willing to work 80, 90 a week and to achieve American dream, then why are soo many RETARD CHINESE PEOPLE COME TO America while they can achieve the SAME DREAM IN THEIR HOME country, where there at least they do not have to take the risk of coming to a COMPLETLY DIFFERENT ENVIORMENT, and have to learn a TOTALLY DIFFERENT LANGUAGE!!!

So, GET THIS!!! FENG!!!!! Many people from other country to this country is because THEY WORK SOOOOOOO HARD!!! in their country, that they want an easier way out, that is why they come here BECAUSE THEY HEARD THIS IS SUPPOSE TO THE LAND OF OPPERTUNITY, they come here and brought the same working SPRITE they had in their home country and use their HARD WORKING HANDS AND MINDS TO KEEP THIS COUNTRY RICH AND PROSPEROUS!!! JUST LIKE MY MOTHER!!!

Jiang said...

If your friend work so hard to achienve American dream, then why don't they go some where else. Go to country like China, where you can only work ONE HOUR A DAY and play GAMES DURING LUNCH JUST LIKE YOU RETARDED FENG SAID. Would'nt that make their life much eaiser and better!!! IF THERE WORK THAT HARD IN CHINA, wouldn't they be able to EASILY ACHIEVE THE CHINA DREAM!!!!! Sicen most CHINKS LIKE ME AND FENG only work SO LITTLE and play MA JONG during break time??

Jiang said...

MY Finial works to FENG!!!

FENG, GET THIS!!!! In this country people's minds are much NARRORer that people in China. They are polite to you on the outside, yet inside they HATE YOU!!! I have heard so many people from other countries told me this. Some of them are from Europe , and a lot of them are from third world countries. It is almost Impossible now for America to keep tallented European workers anymore, and even tallented workers from third world.

Feng said...

Okay jiang, you clearly have issues. Calm down. You have a very narrow view of America.

People come to America, because there are more opportunities here. People generally doing the same work can make more money in America than other parts of the world. The people who work hard become doctors, lawyers, engineers and investment bankers. I don't think you know any of these young professionals, so you have no clue how hard they work. 60 hours a week in New York is considered an easy job in the financial sector. Think about that. Then there are people who work long hours in this country and aren't as intelligent. Then, there are people that your mother hired. Lazy and stupid. If you want harder working people, you've gotta pay more. It's a simple fact. If someone else is willing to pay more for harder workers, they are obviously not going to work for you.

There are a lot of hard working people in this country and a bunch of bums. In general, the people I know are all very hard working.

And in China, there are the really hard migrant workers that work themselves to death in factories. And then there are a lot of other people doing easy jobs in big companies, gov't owned companies and such. Heck, I've seen people doing jobs likes pressing elevator door buttons, saying hi in restaurants and such. There are so many jobs like this in China.

timurelame said...

Any information about Zhuhai air show exhibits?

kevin J waldroup said...

Any information about Zhuhai air show exhibits?
bingo
http://china-threat.blogspot.com/

Jiang said...

Ok, Feng. Let us calm down. I am a hard working student at ULCA and so does my mom. I thought You are trying to insult us, so I am sorry I misunderstand you.

I know there are many people in China and EVERY WHERE ELSE doing easy jobs, but also hard working people everywhere.

I should not be this aggressive and you should not be so SELF CRITISIZING!!!

Feng said...

I will be putting something up on Zhuhai airshow once it is over.

Jiang, getting angry over every single little thing is not going to solve anything. Criticizing Chinese people does not mean I don't like my own people, but rather I want them to improve. There are a lot of things about American culture that Chinese people can learn from.

zjiang said...

Feng, with all due respect, I must disagree with you on several issues. I must disagree with your assessment of Barack Obama and his value to America, with your comparison of Chinese and American workers, and with some of your generalizations about the financial sector. Finally, I'll present some analysis on the state of the Chinese (and broader Oriental "ethnic" group) people in America.

I'll begin with the last point and it is the least substantial part of my analysis, I think it presents an important critique. You present 90-100 hour workweek in the financial sector as an example of the work ethic of the American people. We must take this in context. First, the investment banking work cycle is very sporadic; most analysts and associates will tell you that they work when work arrives and there is often downtime. You are at the office for 90h a week but you are not doing work for 90h a week.

Second, consider the fact that the investment banking analysts and associates are recruited from the brightest and most hardworking students at the top American universities. Take the top students from Tsinghua, Beida, or Harbin and you'll have a better comparison. It would be mistaken to indicate that analyzing the smartest, most diligent, and best paid American workers would produce conclusions that generalize to the American populace.

We can analyze two metrics of worker productivity and working hours to proxy, approximately, the work ethic of a people. Yes, American workers are the most productive in the world but they do not work the most hours (according to the OECD, South Koreans do but China was not included in the study.) How do you explain this discrepancy? Worker productivity is multiplied by capital investment (which the US does a lot of in terms of technology) and efficient management (which the US also does a lot of.) Producing services also tends to yield higher productivity compared to manufacturing.

However, the relative proportions of Asian engineers in the American economy and the huge demand for H-1 immigration visas underscores the inadequacies of the American education system and workforce. It's hard to quantitatively measure the relative work ethic of a developed nation such as the United States and a developing one such as China. My only commentary on this is that even in the United States, Asians perform better in college admissions at the same socioeconomic levels and the key to a productive workforce is education.

Obama-Biden may have been a better ticket than McCain-Palin but it does say much about his ability to help the American nation. He continues the trend of tax cuts (which do NOT pay for themselves) and increasing (marginally) government spending. While China is realizing the severity of the downturn and responding with economically intelligent stimulus packages, the United States is contemplating minor drops in the bucket. The consensus among economists is that the United States simply lacks the fiscal resources to achieve Obama's domestic agenda. Sure, Obama is great at inspiring and sounding messianic but at the end of the day, money is what drives the world and his economic policies are simply insufficient and ineffective.

We can also take a look at the conditions of his rise such as his being the product of institutionalized racism. His character is certainly in question, with the sealing of the Ayers archives and his simply insufficient explanation of the Wright connection. His wife Michelle's comments (on taped national television, I may add) simply contribute to this image of a radical interested in both his own ambition and Black empowerment.

That leads into the final idea of what's happening to Asians in America and how fundamentally contrary to the American dream is. Taking your example of the financial sector in United States, we'll consider how bonuses are decided in investment banks. Virtually everything is decided by a performance review committee (which is non-blind) and given the inherent racism of people, we can see how this leads to decreased pay for Asian workers. This sort of consensus decision-making and evaluation is commonplace in corporate America and it systematically cuts out minorities for bonuses and promotions. Given two candidates, cetera paribus, you'll pick the one most similar to you (there's extensive research establishing this sort of psychological bias) and given that most committees will be non-Asian, you see the problem here.

We all know about the effects of Affirmative Action in the college admissions process. Take a look at the University of California demographics before and after race-based AA was removed. Some may say that there's only a marginal difference between Berkeley and Harvard but the reality is that marginal differences tend to add up. Just ask the Wall Street financial engineers. Research on AA in law schools has also indicated that it actually decreases the overall economic welfare of Blacks due to systematic mismatching; they're placed in institutions they're underqualified for and end up doing worse than their peers, leading to higher failure rates and worse job placement.

Guess who supports AA? Obama. The reality is that he is no different from any other president that we've had; just another self-interested individual who wants to bring his own social groups up. There's nothing wrong with that but as an Asian, it is not in my interest nor is it in yours.

Take a look at the perceptions (which matter far more than facts) of Asian males in the United States and you'll see that we're being screwed over in both our professional and personal lives. If that's the sort of thing you enjoy, then yes, having a Black president is great but I have no delusions about how Obama will change my future welfare. It matters little though because my future lies in China anyway.

Jiang said...

Hey, ZJiang.Finially you SPEEK my words. I am an engineer and my English skills is not as good as yours but BOY YOUR HIT THE BULLSEYE!!! FU#K IT MAN. Being an Asian in US is without a doubt the worst thing could happen to you.

I really hate Affermative Action. We Asians only account for 4.5% of this country and YET WE ART NOT even considered MINORITY!!!! WE WORK SO FU#KING HARD to get to where we are while other SH!TS IN this country can be what they want regardless. I mean you keep hearing Black and hispanics crying that they are not becoming Doctors, Engineers, and Lawers anb BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!! Then there are the RACIST media helping promoting them to become Doctors, Engineers, and Lawer. BUT WHAT ABOUT us??? When is there any media promoting Asian becoming Basketball players? Football players? Actors? Baseball players?? Even though CHINA WON 50 gold medals in 2008 the most A COUNTRY EVER WON IN HISTORY???
ALso, you KEEP hearing SHIT STEROTYPES against Asian MAN but is there any against Asian women?? NO!!!!!!! NEVER!!!! Asian men's image in American Femal's eyes ARE BEYOND PATHITIC!!! We are getting FUCKED BOTH Physically and Mentally. And OBAMA will make it worst for use Cause he only cares about his own social group as ZJiang said!!

I mean FU$K IT!!! This country is sooo racist and the americans think WE ASIANS ARE STUPID NOT TO SEE IT!!! THEY FOGOT WHO ARE THE REAL SMART ASE IN THIS COUNTRY!!!!

That is why I have NEVER HAD ANY FAITH IN THIS COUNTRY!! And guess what Feng thinks by having a BLACK presidents, this will change. TAKE MY WORDS Feng, it will not change, it will NEVER Change as long as Asians in this country are not UNITED!!!!

Jiang said...

OK, let me make it clear to America. That once I got my Master Degree and will work MY FU%KING ass off to get as much experience and to get as GOOD as possible. Then I will be OUT OF HERE!!!

Feng said...

Jiang, you gotta stop using swear words and caps. Stop talking so big, if you can get a good job in this market, you are lucky. That's how bad the economy is right now.

Zjiang, you obviously didn't read my post. I said I don't agree with many of his policies, I agree with Ron Paul's policies, who is about the only person that can truly save American economy. As for Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright, why does that matter? You obviously watched too much fox news to get wrapped up in the entire thing. I spent the entire election getting annoyed at seeing the conservative base basically trying to destroy the character a good man. It's truly unfortunate that you do the same.

Let me address this William Ayer thing since it's so ridiculous. He bombed Pentagon to stop the war, not because he wanted to hurt people. And now he is a professor who also helps in the community. And because of this election, he is painted a bad guy. As for Rev Wright, he is clearly a nut job deeply ingrained in the "white people have been taken advantage of black people for 400 years" complex. The only thing that tells me about Barack Obama going there is that he is not much of a Christian.

As for your talk about investment banker's 90 hours not being really 90 hours. You are totally missing the point. How many jobs out there do you think you are working non-stop the entire time you are there? The people that spend 40 hours a week working for the gov't are only working 5 hours according to your definition. Point being, these are very hard working people, who can't have a social life because they are bound to stay at work. On the downtime, they spend a lot of time bored at work watching the clock roll by. During busy times, they do days of consecutive all-nighters.

As for Asian men in America, we are not any more discriminated against than black people or Hispanics or Indians. In fact, Asian America are probably less discriminated against than those groups. It is far more integrated in the mainstream. So, we have no excuse if we don't get to where we want.

Jiang said...

Feng, save your BULLCRAP!

Have you heard all those negative sterotypes against us??

You clearly have not IDEA!!

BTW, the economy is BAD in America, but I doubt it is this bad in other country! It is American and Americans themselves who dig this hell hole for the sick for their own suffering. I mean look.
1. 10 Trillion National debt? Who cause it?
2. The Bank crisis? Who's greed cause it?
3. The subprime loan bill passed by congress? Who initiated?
4. The War in Iraq, who started it?Do not tell me it is just Bush. In 2003 over 60% of Americans SUPPORT IT!!!
5. Other country getting more and more competitive? Whos fault is it?

Feng, you see. If most Americans are indeed hard working and kind people as you said. Then we will not have these problems. BUT the reality is that MOST Americans are kinda of narrow minded people and WE ALL DISCRIMNATE AGAINST EACH OTHER!! It will NEVER change as long as we have a muliti-culture in this country. People hate each based on a racial prefference ON A DAILY BASE!!