Tag: Henry Kissinger

Paradox, dilemma and irony

Paradox: doomsday for all is not coming, doomsday for one, anytime (especially when you are old).

Dilemma: too big to fail, the book then the movie (might not make it big at the box office).

Irony: got to have a job to land a job (hence, the growth of internship i.e. free  labor).

Underneath it all, we still act out our primal instincts e.g. sacrificing a virgin to appease the gods (common good) via new forms: NINJ loan, TARP and foreclosure (sub-prime borrowers are enjoying free rent before the eviction notice got nailed on the door – yet, the process flows just one way: driving people out on the streets where they were supposed to belong in the first place).

Meanwhile, debtor’s nation will soon face intense competition from China, whose agriculture population now stands at mere 10%.    http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/433041d0-8568-11e0-ae32-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1NHwUmam0.

Their service sector is growing and scrutinizing every loose brick in the American fortress: from refrigerators to automobiles, from helicopters to pharmaceutical research.

One interesting note from history: during a visit to Pakistan, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger faked a sick leave to take a side trip to China. From there, the Cold War was practically neutralized, setting the stage for today’s multi-polar world. Recently, we saw how Pakistan was once again used as staging area for America’ s new battle ground.

Pakistan, our new dilemma (Please return the SEAL helicopter, and do not forward to the reverse engineering lab in China).

Vietnam, our new irony.

America, filled with paradoxes (loose sex and loose religion, long list of millionaires and high level of national debt, highest incarceration rate yet land of the free).

Dear readers, you got the gist. Connect the dots for yourself. Think, think, think. Apple “think different”, so they make the I-pad 2 through Hon Hai, whose subsidiary Foxconn kept having its factory blow up or employees jump the dorm’s rail. Tell me there is no modern-day sacrifice of human being to appease the gods of consumption (last year, we just wanted an I-pod, now we want an I-pad) and I will tell you to think again.

This side of doom

Doomsday prediction did not materiale.

On this side of doomsday, Southeast Asia is no longer a war zone. It’s the new fun zone (with young and upcoming demographics).

LinkedIn IPO gone through the roof while IMF Chief couldn’t check in at any hostel in NY (I did not mis-spell “hostel”). Whether you live in flood zone or dictator zone, mobile coverage is ubiquitous.

I can’t remember a time when we are required to get up to speed so quickly, from theology of rapture to sustaiability issues, from Bush tax cut to Obama’s TARP. We need to survive information glut.

All this makes the break-up of the Soviet Union (into different nations states with new names) a walk in the park. Even with public figures who still command some staying powers: Donald Trump and Henry Kissinger to Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, will soon join the baby boomers’ mass retirement.

The new actors on the scene will not take their public place, but will move onto virtual space (Farmville by Gaga and fireworks by Perry). It’s getting too crowded to actually compete in physical sphere, so we move on to virtual space (Kevin Kelly) where we can upload our “most outrageous marriage proposal ever” etc…The margin of acceptance is higher and the price of public humiliation lower.

This side of doom is quite accommodating: anywhere from child-rearing for gay couples to all-naked gym.

If we live in the most tolerant country on Earth, and still be jolted by change, how much more can citizens of Arab Spring be still and “watch the train go by”. 7 billion people living in jet age and internet time – discounted firewalls by political dictators and mind control by cult leaders – negotiate change, either by osmosis or by being active (open universities at MIT or TED talk online to help you “be all you can be” in your own time). I can’t wait to get up every morning, doomsday or not. Prophets (false or true) come and go. But in our internet age, we should reserve our judgement until all facts are in and not jump into conclusion for just one tweet.