HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_026645.jpg

ethnic hatred, through identity politics. This happened in Taiwan, where I grew up. When I was a child, I was fluent in Mandarin and Taiwanese, as most of the children I was friends with were not recent immigrants from Mainland China like my family was. There were no social conflicts, as far as I recall, until the pro-independence movement riled up those who considered themselves ‘Taiwanese’ against the ‘Mainlanders’ like myself. Some of my Taiwanese childhood friends are no longer on speaking terms with me, simply because I’m a ‘Mainlander.’ Taiwan’s economic development came to a sudden halt, as people were in a constant state of feeling mistreated by the other group. The pendulum would swing from one side (green) to the other (blue), each time a President is found to have committed blatant and large-scale corruption. The politicians won, but the people lost. This is one reason why I deeply resent identity politics and fear that the proponents don’t truly understand how dangerous this game really can be. In contrast to the prevalent view, I believe indentity politics are themselves divisive. Economic cycles and political cycles come and go, but people can hate each other for generations. Look around the world; I think we can find plenty examples of irrational hatred between ethnic groups, ironically because one group felt they were wronged by another and the political discussions got hijacked by overly zealous politicians. (2) I love Michael Jordan and have nothing against Ellen DeGeneres, but think Robert de Niro made a fool of himself in that video. While this may not interest President Obama, Mr Joe Sutter just passed away: he was the ‘Father of the Boeing 747’, the lead engineer that designed and built the first B-747 in 1969. Maybe one day someone will do a movie about him, and the actor playing him could win the Presidential Medal of Freedom… (3) An artist in China made a sculpture of a black swan (see the photo below), which was placed in a shopping mall in Beijing on the other side of the street from the headquarters of CSRC (China Securities Regulatory Commission) – the government agency in charge of the securities markets and the agency that intervened to support the Chinese equity markets. This sculpture was quickly removed by government agents, within 3 hours of it being placed there. Months earlier, there were two sculptures of bears (mama bear and a baby bear) that were placed outside the same mall, and they were also removed quickly… Maybe I was wrong for belittling artists and entertainers: they may have the power to bring down the USD9 trillion equity markets in China with a small sculpture…

HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_026645