Tag: Thomas Friedman

Mac Miracle

My friend kept listening to Roger Waters‘ It’s a Miracle, whose lyric includes “they’ve got MacDonald in Tibet“.

Now, they’ve got MacDonald in Vietnam. More miracle!

Thomas Friedman put a spin on an old geo-political theory, which states that any two countries, with a MacDonald,

are least likely to engage in an arm conflict. In this latest case, it already happened. Next week, the two heads of States will meet up in Washington (fries or egg rolls?)

It’s been a long long road, from running girl (napalm) to running man (Arsenal).

In between, we got a bunch of walls (from Memorial Wall to moving wall) and a bunch of bridges.

From feeling betrayed to being bridged.

Ray Kroc would have been proud: shake shake shake, shake your conveyor milkshake.

Tourists would find a cocoon: coffee at Starbucks and a miracle at MacDonald (want fries with it?).

Modernization and urbanization are here to stay.

The last pitch is ” for here or to go”?

Industrial world wins out, to the last drop of ketchup (Heinz) in the bag.

Squeeze it!

Fast food, slow burn.

I am proud then I am sad.

It’s a miracle, yet it doesn’t feel exhilarating.

After all, it’s 2013. Countries are exploring space travel in Mars.

Colonization itself has found new frontier in outer space.

And we can barely find a clean bathroom here on Earth.

With machine-like efficiency, people raise expectations: like, yesterday.

Consistency, predictability and value. In short, brand value.

Hooters itself is having a make-over. With every new “convert”, its chain finds its renewed commitment to core values.

The frontier might not look that promising, but it’s important to its founders and its faith: that its multiplier effect will pay off. And with its new location, new customer life-time value, the brand is strengthened and not threatened.

Growth is not only the result of health. It’s necessary. It’s miracle, yet it’s natural. Anyone can shake the milk, cook the beef and fry the potato. But not all can maintain a clean bathroom, and the consistency of billions hamburgers served.

The Golden Arch will be here (yellow on red is just a co-incidence). It’s another miracle in a series of modern-day event. I fear for the ice cream stores nearby. Can’t beat the value of vanilla on cone, for just under a buck. Fully A/C.

I forwarded the announcement to my friend, hoping the next time he put on “It’s a miracle”, he would think of me,

his repat friend, in search of clean restroom and true miracle in modern age.

Learning as motivator

From papyrus to paper, from microfiche to microphone, we use technology for knowledge transfer.

Learning is a great motivator. Once started it never stops (in my death-bed, I probably still ask the attending nurse what all those charts mean, and why not this and that).

Don’t believe in learning curve (as if once you got over it, you own it. There will always be pace learning i.e. know, forget, know again as if for the first time).

Politicians on their first term barely learn how to get back from the underground of the Capitol or stay out of SE part of town (I heard it is now quite gentrified).

Coursera has been a great success. It harnesses technology to extend learning to the mass. Technology as slaves, not masters.

Lift them up, not put them down. I enjoy reading about the Indian IT and call center folks enjoy their night out at a disco, Chinese tourists flocking the streets of Paris or Vietnamese students coming to CAL State. Let them come. With traveling comes learning. With learning people are more open-minded.

Here in Vietnam, cable TV shows Hollywood car chase, guns blazing etc… With exposure  comes the exercise of choices.

Tolstoy doesn’t believe in true freedom of choice (free will vs predestination).

Still, the urge to learn, to discover, to connect and to advance one’s self is innate

The only difference between acquiring information online vs at Ivy League institutions is the socialization of knowledge. Upper-class kids would meet and marry (imperial alliance model) one another, hence perpetuating the ruling class.

But in those far-away lands (Timbuktu), with internet, who can stop a genius from acquiring information about protons, neutrons and electrons. Physics is physics. International grad students might stick out like a sore thumb given their speech and dress code (formal).

I saw kids in the Mekong Delta riding bikes, then crossing a river on ferry to get to school. And that’s on a sunny day. When it rains, I don’t see how they can get to school in dry uniforms (one heart-broken story last year. A boat full of students sunk and students never made it to school).

Learning as motivator.

Then, shoes and broadband. Thomas Friedman, author of the World is Flat, had similar ideas in the NYT today.

Learning as motivator.

The things they carry. Turn those swords into plowshares.

Angel of Death into Angel of Learning, Agent Orange into Agent of Change.

Broadband for rural, broadband against ruin.

Nobody can stop a man from learning. Not even in the confine of a prison.

Senator McCain was detained for a while in Hanoi Hilton. He now sits on Senate committees. Tell me he did not learn a thing or two while being detained.

Learning takes many forms and takes place when least  expected (even from the bottom).

To learn one must first be humble and teachable. One must be motivated even on a ferry-boat or one’s death-bed.

Music as Motivator

Old Time Rock and Roll, Get Ready, I Just Want to Celebrate etc.. will “soothe your soul”.

Take time out to massage the affective part of yourself.

Ancient culture or atomized culture, we all need to gather around the “fire”, to warm up, to celebrate and to belong.

Music as equalizer, as motivator. A call to march forward.

At Inauguration, Presidents hold concerts, to celebrate. Good for the top brass, good for us commoners.

In college, students played in marching band (at Penn State, they travel a lot and play a lot at home games). Even at corporate events , we hear music which can really kick start an evening.

Work hard and play hard culture.

Fun, fast and flavourful.

Something about those beats that awake and arouse ancient genes.

We are meant to live in herd and hunt in packs.

No way around it but marching to the same drum beat.

(Incidentally, I found financial guys have the most fun at parties, even though it’s them who will process those payments a few weeks later).

Of course we need rah-rah sessions.

We need to be recognized, to be motivated. It’s not for the winners. It is to draw out the best from the laggers.

A few days ago, Thomas Friedman had a piece about the cultural differences between Washington and Silicon Valley. His central theme was Collaboration.

And how different the concept was perceived and processed in those two places.

I would add creativity and imagination to the mix.

What could be a better source to inspire and jump-start “out of the box” thinking than to turn on those good old-time Rock and Roll, theme songs and marching tunes of the Valley. I have run into a bunch of old acquaintances. The secret sauce has always been music.

Of course, exercise and diet are top of the list. But musicians tend to maintain that care-free, let’s-see-what-happens attitude. It keeps them young and fit. It keeps them upbeat (notice the positive term). At the very least, it draws out the inner child that refuses to grow up in this pain-filled world.

When in doubt, in stress, in trouble, just know You’ve Got A Friend.

Bumpy boat ride

Stories of tourist boats that capsized, ship builder that went default on loan payment, and fishing boats got intimidated by a gigantic neighbor, kept coming out of Vietnam recently.

When you live along a coast that spans from San Diego to North of Vancouver, sea-related incidents are bound to happen. The latest dispute centered in the South China Seas is serious enough for Vietnam to start brushing up on its draft policy

and asking the US, its former enemy, to help resolve this marina tension.

One war document (the Pentagon Papers) barely got declassified, another is just about to be written. 40-year cycle.

Thomas Friedman came up with a globalization theory: any two nations who have McDonald stores open in their countries, are least likely to be involved in war (based on a classic theory of those who trade try to avoid war).

In this context, Vietnam should be asking not the US, but the McDonald corporation to start supplying burgers and fries.

I just read an AP story on rising food price in Vietnam (causing moms to go to bed hungry – since mothers put their children’s education and well-being before themselves).

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/14/v-fullstory/2265650/skyrocketing-food-prices-leave.html

Now, the country has the familiar scent of war. The scent that has barely dissipated for a new digital generation.

Then again, if you lived down those cyclical conflicts, with a desirable coast line, and a restless and hungry demographic (against a backdrop of huge neighbor full of young men- due to one-child policy, euphemism for one-male-child policy) it doesn’t take brain to see potential eruptions.

The boat ride will continue to be bumpy, at least, until McDonald starts its D-day with “you want fries with that?” .

Hungry moms can always stop by on her way to collect metal scraps (principal subject on Ms Mason’s story filed for AP). I am sure she will want to save some take-out for her hungry children at home. Any sacrifice for a better tomorrow, no matter how bumpy the ride or whose boats it is bumping against.

The three towers

Tower Records and Twin Towers.

All came down.

I remember watching it over and over in disbelief.

My “where were you when Kennedy was assassinated” moment. My friend even commented on my being so upset.

And I remember blurting out that a culture with Howard Stern throwing bagels at cream-cheesed butts on TV  was in collision with a culture which condones woman stoning. The two could not co-exist .

Yet, after nine years, I saw a planned Quran-burning pastor standing next to a Muslim cleric who wants to build a Mosque in lower Manhattan.

It’s an unusual line up on PBS, yet not Howard Stern show.

Things have never been the same after the three towers came down.

After 11/9, we no longer have East Germany. After 9/11, we live life so exposed and vulnerable (traveling has been more difficult, with shoes off etc…).

I am sure I have mailed less packages, if at all. We read more and know more about
the Others (I wouldn’t have known about the many shades of Islam in Iraq for instance, thanks to the likes of Thomas Friedman, expert on Middle East affairs. )

And suddenly, we find ourselves living in a multi-polar world, one in which nations stand together to condemn acts of terrorism and extremism.

(I am glad people with decency spoke up against the Gainesville pastor’s plan and bluff).

Have we learned anything? or just react Pavlovianly?  Tit for tat. A bagel here, a stone there.

I couldn’t articulate my feelings to my friend. I am not sure I can now, after years of processing those emotions.

I just knew then that the world, as we knew it, would never be the same.

It flash backed that mass grave scene in Hue I saw on TV back in 1968 (Tet), when CBS anchor said it was a stalemate -signifying VN war ‘s turning point.

With 68 came 75 and my vanishing innocence.

With 9/11, my confidence in Good triumph over Evil. What a decade it has been (for both towers and treasury).

I couldn’t tell my friend then how I felt since I was in shock (while he was probably in denial) .  I realize now, that even with the same event, people react in various ways. I hear myself pledge my allegiance once more to the flag, but knowing that I am too old to enlist. It’s a different kind of warfare now. But it still demands courage, sacrifice and willingness to draw a line in the sand. Evil hasn’t changed. Just its manifestation. And we need not to forget enormous harm it has brought on us all, one tower at a time. When Tower Records folded, it was quoted that “it was the day the music died.” 9/11 has been humanity’s double death. We are mourning still, widows, widowers and watchers by. The only thing that should be burned is the hate that resides in us all. Don’t take it out on anyone or anything. Use it, to rebuild better towers.