The American public, by and large, is not ideological. Obama was elected president last year in spite of his record as a very liberal community organizer and senator, not because of it. Americans were weary of Bush, whom the liberal media loved to blame for everything, and the Republicans, and attracted by a charismatic, articulate, candidate who could speak a few good words (Hope ... Change), presented himself as a moderate, and offered redemption for the country's racist past.
But, once president, Obama revealed his true colors, surrounded himself with questionable people (such as the Green Jobs Czar Van Jones) and let the radical wing of the Democratic Party write bills that tilt the country towards socialism and ever growing government control (and national debt). On the international scene, he kowtows to the worst enemies of the US.
Domestically, Obama believes that he has a mandate to implement radical change, or has cynically decided that he has a unique opportunity to implement policies that would never have a chance under normal circumstances in the United States (never let a good crisis go to waste ...)
Internationally, he is naive and believes that extending a friendly hand will mollify dictators pursuing evil ends or bent on strengthening their positions by weakening the US.
These are strategic mistakes of huge proportions. He and the Democratic Party will pay dearly for it. Hopefully before the United States is damaged beyond repair.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Barack Obama - Nobel Peace Prize
You are right, this is a bad joke."
Except that it is not a joke ... It is real, unfortunately, and I see this as a pre-emptive move to dissuade Obama from changing his approach to foreign policy after the disastrous results that are sure to come from his current course. This is an attempt at defanging the US.
The Nobel Peace Prize Committee is appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. This is a leftist body that has bought into the new European religions (or pathologies): the belief in supra-national political organizations and multilateral diplomacy as the way to resolve or prevent conflicts, and the belief in the reduction of carbon emissions induced by human activity to fight climate change. The WSJ commented today: "George W. Bush may have retired from American public life, but the Europeans want the Yanks to know they never want to see his likes again. Counting Jimmy Carter in 2002 and Al Gore in 2007, this is the third Nobel Non-Bush Peace Prize".
There are two ways of looking at this news: by this decision, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee has either definitively demonstrated its irrelevance or contributed to weaken the United States.
My hope is that the former is true and that the US will continue to have the resolve to defend the ideals of the free world. I believe that Americans have a better grasp of reality than Europeans do, and that they will send to the White House as soon as they have a chance a new leader, one who would never receive the Peace Prize from this committee. Hopefully, this will happen before irreparable damage is done.
We know from history the bitter harvest of appeasement.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The Death of a Sage
Irving Kristol died on September 18, at the age of 89. He was tagged with the label of "neocon" and had over the years contributed many articles on the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal. On September 19, the Journal, to honor him, published excerpts from these essays under the title of "Irving Kristol's Reality Principles".
I liked the first one in particular, published in 1972. Here it is:
Symbolic Politics and Liberal Reform, Dec. 15, 1972
"All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling," wrote Oscar Wilde, and I would like to suggest that the same can be said for bad politics ...
It seems to me that the politics of liberal reform, in recent years, shows many of the same characteristics as amateur poetry. It has been more concerned with the kind of symbolic action that gratifies the passions of the reformer rather than with the efficacy of the reforms themselves. Indeed, the outstanding characteristic of what we call "the New Politics" is precisely its insistence on the overwhelming importance of revealing, in the public realm, one's intense feelings—we must "care," we must "be concerned," we must be "committed." Unsurprisingly, this goes along with an immense indifference to consequences, to positive results or the lack thereof.
This piece of wisdom for all ages is seldom heeded by liberal politicians who keep designing reforms that have repeatedly resulted in the exact opposite of their intended purposes, but make them feel good about themselves. This behavior is, unfortunately, on display again in Washington ...
I liked the first one in particular, published in 1972. Here it is:
Symbolic Politics and Liberal Reform, Dec. 15, 1972
"All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling," wrote Oscar Wilde, and I would like to suggest that the same can be said for bad politics ...
It seems to me that the politics of liberal reform, in recent years, shows many of the same characteristics as amateur poetry. It has been more concerned with the kind of symbolic action that gratifies the passions of the reformer rather than with the efficacy of the reforms themselves. Indeed, the outstanding characteristic of what we call "the New Politics" is precisely its insistence on the overwhelming importance of revealing, in the public realm, one's intense feelings—we must "care," we must "be concerned," we must be "committed." Unsurprisingly, this goes along with an immense indifference to consequences, to positive results or the lack thereof.
This piece of wisdom for all ages is seldom heeded by liberal politicians who keep designing reforms that have repeatedly resulted in the exact opposite of their intended purposes, but make them feel good about themselves. This behavior is, unfortunately, on display again in Washington ...
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Faces of Mumbai
During my short business trip in Mumbai, I had the good luck of finding the time, in between meetings and monsoon showers, to stroll around South Mumbai's sights. People always make the best pictures. Here are a few I took on July 20.
A not too comfortable and rather dangerous spot to have a nap ... but this man does not seem to care ...
In the middle of the esplanade between the Gateway to India and the luxurious Taj Mahal Hotel, a middle-aged man was roasting peanuts ... a dark snapshot of this poor man's life ...
At the front desk of the Taj Mahal Hotel, another picture of India, the successful, growing Indian middle class, is represented by this charming hostess.
I was not too sure whether this man was a customer or a fixture of the Taj Mahal Hotel, but he certainly had an interesting face and a remarkable hat.
Five-star hotels such as the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi are symbols of the growing Indian economy, open to the world and to the modernizing influence of trade. This is why they were targeted in the murderous rampage conducted by a band of terrorists on November 26, 2008, which resulted in 166 deaths. In the lobby of the Taj Mahal, an impressive memorial had already been erected a few months later with the names of the 31 people murdered here inscribed on a stelle.
Scenes on Chowpatty Beach at dusk, a popular Mumbai attraction.
A not too comfortable and rather dangerous spot to have a nap ... but this man does not seem to care ...
In the middle of the esplanade between the Gateway to India and the luxurious Taj Mahal Hotel, a middle-aged man was roasting peanuts ... a dark snapshot of this poor man's life ...
At the front desk of the Taj Mahal Hotel, another picture of India, the successful, growing Indian middle class, is represented by this charming hostess.
I was not too sure whether this man was a customer or a fixture of the Taj Mahal Hotel, but he certainly had an interesting face and a remarkable hat.
Five-star hotels such as the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi are symbols of the growing Indian economy, open to the world and to the modernizing influence of trade. This is why they were targeted in the murderous rampage conducted by a band of terrorists on November 26, 2008, which resulted in 166 deaths. In the lobby of the Taj Mahal, an impressive memorial had already been erected a few months later with the names of the 31 people murdered here inscribed on a stelle.
Scenes on Chowpatty Beach at dusk, a popular Mumbai attraction.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Rain
Monsoon rain in Mumbai ... a constant drizzle, and heavy showers. From the lobby of the Oberoi, buildings across the bay are a faint line of ghosts shrouded in low hanging clouds.
High tide ... Under sunlight diffused by the leaden sky, a violent wind drives a cavalcade of frothing rollers to crash on the breakwater. Spray flies over the parapet and lands on the pavement, now a black reflecting pool. The monsoon's only colours are shades of grey.
In the short intervals when rain stops, a cloak of tepid air heavy with moisture still hangs about, fogging glasses and camera lenses fresh out of the cool hotel lobby.
On sidewalks, dark-skinned emaciated souls sit under flapping plastic sheets, precariously stretched over temporary stalls.
Back in Singapore this morning, the plane lands under heavy rain ...
Rain, non-stop tropical rain, I have not seen the sun in three days.
High tide ... Under sunlight diffused by the leaden sky, a violent wind drives a cavalcade of frothing rollers to crash on the breakwater. Spray flies over the parapet and lands on the pavement, now a black reflecting pool. The monsoon's only colours are shades of grey.
In the short intervals when rain stops, a cloak of tepid air heavy with moisture still hangs about, fogging glasses and camera lenses fresh out of the cool hotel lobby.
On sidewalks, dark-skinned emaciated souls sit under flapping plastic sheets, precariously stretched over temporary stalls.
Back in Singapore this morning, the plane lands under heavy rain ...
Rain, non-stop tropical rain, I have not seen the sun in three days.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
The Attraction of Punggol Beach
Punggol Beach lies on the Northeastern coast of Singapore. It is one of the sites where Japanese massacred Chinese thought to have anti-Japanese sentiments, at the beginning of their occupation of Singapore during the second World War. The Japanese military chose remote places such as this one to perpetrate these crimes. On February 28, 1942, about 400 Chinese men were shot on Punggol Beach by a Japanese firing squad. It is now a National Heritage site.
I had seen on the Internet striking pictures of sunset on Punggol Beach. The colors had obviously been manipulated, but the photographs nevertheless created in my mind a vision of Punggol Beach as an idyllic place, where I would like to take pictures some day. I decided to go there late afternoon yesterday to catch the sunset.
Punggol is not so remote anymore. Thanks to the highly developed freeway and road network, no point in the island is at more than a 30-40 minute drive from any other point. After a fast ride on the Central Expressway (CTE) and Tampines Expressway (TPE), I reached Punggol Road, which runs straight North to the coast. Like many other spots in the island, signs of construction were everywhere, and Punggol Road is lined with new, dense, HDB flats. Only the last kilometer or so runs through an undeveloped wooded area, but even there I drove past a fenced-in construction site ... the Ministry of National Development must be working on a new project.
The road ends at a spot on the coast where there is a small jetty. Across the Johor Straits, the highly industrialized Malaysian coastline looked very close. I parked my car and walked along a path running left on the low dam lining the very narrow sand beach. After a kilometer or so, I found a spot where black rocks, almost level with the dam, provided an easy path stepping down to the beach.
The view across the Johor straits was depressingly industrial, from the right ...
to the left ...
If you keep your eyesight low, you can believe that you are in a place that deserves to be called a beach ...
Undeterred by the scenery, a man, perched on a rock, was fishing, but I wonder whether he would eat anything caught in these waters ...
A bride and bridegroom arrived with a photographer to take wedding pictures in the day's waning light.
Starting at 6PM (the sun sets around 7PM everyday in Singapore, since it is almost on the Equator), the place became almost crowded, as more and more photographers equipped with tripods were gathering in this spot to take pictures of the sunset.
I talked to a young man and commented that this was not much of a beach. He agreed but immediately added that the sunsets here were very beautiful.
Except for its luxuriant tropical vegetation, Singapore is devoid of natural beauty, and it is sad to see its inhabitants flock to places such as Punggol Beach to catch a sunset. But these amateur photographers are well versed in the wizardry of digital photography and can create computer-aided beauty more striking than natural beauty, and post it on the Internet. This is how I was snared into visiting this barren and ugly beach on a late Saturday afternoon.
Luck was not on my side; the sunset, which looked promising since clouds were at the rendez-vous, was not spectacular, and here is the best I could do, since I have not learned any wizardry ...
I had seen on the Internet striking pictures of sunset on Punggol Beach. The colors had obviously been manipulated, but the photographs nevertheless created in my mind a vision of Punggol Beach as an idyllic place, where I would like to take pictures some day. I decided to go there late afternoon yesterday to catch the sunset.
Punggol is not so remote anymore. Thanks to the highly developed freeway and road network, no point in the island is at more than a 30-40 minute drive from any other point. After a fast ride on the Central Expressway (CTE) and Tampines Expressway (TPE), I reached Punggol Road, which runs straight North to the coast. Like many other spots in the island, signs of construction were everywhere, and Punggol Road is lined with new, dense, HDB flats. Only the last kilometer or so runs through an undeveloped wooded area, but even there I drove past a fenced-in construction site ... the Ministry of National Development must be working on a new project.
The road ends at a spot on the coast where there is a small jetty. Across the Johor Straits, the highly industrialized Malaysian coastline looked very close. I parked my car and walked along a path running left on the low dam lining the very narrow sand beach. After a kilometer or so, I found a spot where black rocks, almost level with the dam, provided an easy path stepping down to the beach.
The view across the Johor straits was depressingly industrial, from the right ...
to the left ...
If you keep your eyesight low, you can believe that you are in a place that deserves to be called a beach ...
Undeterred by the scenery, a man, perched on a rock, was fishing, but I wonder whether he would eat anything caught in these waters ...
A bride and bridegroom arrived with a photographer to take wedding pictures in the day's waning light.
Starting at 6PM (the sun sets around 7PM everyday in Singapore, since it is almost on the Equator), the place became almost crowded, as more and more photographers equipped with tripods were gathering in this spot to take pictures of the sunset.
I talked to a young man and commented that this was not much of a beach. He agreed but immediately added that the sunsets here were very beautiful.
Except for its luxuriant tropical vegetation, Singapore is devoid of natural beauty, and it is sad to see its inhabitants flock to places such as Punggol Beach to catch a sunset. But these amateur photographers are well versed in the wizardry of digital photography and can create computer-aided beauty more striking than natural beauty, and post it on the Internet. This is how I was snared into visiting this barren and ugly beach on a late Saturday afternoon.
Luck was not on my side; the sunset, which looked promising since clouds were at the rendez-vous, was not spectacular, and here is the best I could do, since I have not learned any wizardry ...
Friday, June 26, 2009
BREAKING NEWS: MICHAEL JACKSON IS DEAD - The Inanity of Commercial Cable TV News Coverage
Every morning, between 6:30 and 7:00, as I have my coffee before getting ready to go to the office, I like to watch the second half of the news hour presented by Bret Baier on the Fox Cable News network. It features a panel discussion of noteworthy political topics in the news. This panel is made of analysts who usually provide interesting insights that go beyond the thirty-second headlines we have sadly gotten used to. My favorite panelist is Charles Krauthammer, whose views are deepened by his professional training as a medical doctor and psychologist. When I see it in Singapore, this program is actually broadcasted at the same time in the evening on the other side of the world, prime time on the US East Coast.Yesterday morning, when I turned the TV on, instead of Bret Baier and the panel, I was exposed to a “Breaking News” message announcing the death of Michael Jackson, floating over a continuous stream of pictures of a crowd gathered in front of the Los Angeles hospital where Michael Jackson had been pronounced dead a few hours earlier, and various clippings of his performing career. As usual this went on and on, with non-stop repetition of the same news (no details were known at the time except that the immediate cause of death was cardiac arrest) amid statements of various celebrities who felt compelled to rush to the scene.
One of them was the aging “Reverend” Al Sharpton. We have a black man in the White House, but the reverend’s line has not changed; he still milks white guilt for everything it is worth; this is his raison d’être. Apparently Michael Jackson was not taken seriously by the music industry at an early stage of his career. Perhaps Al would like us to believe that this racist neglect is the deep-seated reason for Michael Jackson’s weirdness, the plastic surgery that accentuated his androgynous looks, the outlandish clothes and bits of paraphernalia he adorned himself with, and the scandal of alleged child molestation that clouded his late years. More likely, however, the real reasons must be an abusive father and a performing career as a pop artist that started at the age of four.
Michael Jackson’s death, as a news item in a one-hour regular news program, deserves no more than a simple and short statement, for it is not an event that affects the state of affairs on the world stage in any way. For people who are interested, a one-hour in-depth and well researched program on his life and career could be produced and broadcasted at a suitable time after the event, when more is known about the exact circumstances of his death. The timing of this death invites questions, for it happened only a relatively short time before the staging of a series of concerts in London announced a few months ago as his farewell to the stage, and as a way to put behind him the dark clouds of suspicion over his involvement in the molestation of children in his LA home.
Why then did Fox News decide to cancel a regular in-depth news program primarily dedicated to political issues to make room for this continuous bombardment of incomplete non-news? It was not the only cable TV network that did this. I flipped through CNN and BBC World, and on those channels also it was all about Michael Jackson’s death, with the same pictures. There can be only one reason: commercial news channels thrive on the sensationalism and emotivity that drive the interests of the vast majority of TV viewers. For high ratings (and therefore high publicity revenues), there is nothing better than the untimely death of a controversial celebrity adulated by millions around the world.
Commercial broadcasting was supposed to bring variety and choice to the public. But, when it comes to “breaking news”, there is no choice: you see the same story pretty much told in the same manner on all news channels. In those times, I long for publicly funded broadcasting.
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