Tag: Zimbabwe

What a start!

A close friend just had a baby. That little boy arrived last week. Same hospital where I was born (Tu Du). I joked that he and I came from the same factory.

Innocent, peacefully sleeping in the rocking arms of mother, aunt and grandma.

What a start!

Wonder if all of us got that same start!

Clean slate, white-sheet of paper.

Prologue with no preconception, no prejudice and no pre-occupation.

Just taking in the scene and exercise the senses.

Learning and forgetting, walking and falling.

What is life!

One day, he will discover that people and circumstances won’t allow him to connect the dots that easily even though he could sense it.

Someone aptly said that “evil prospers where good men just stood by”.

I am half-way through Einstein biography. People of his time were confronted with Evil incarnated. He himself ushered in the age of Relativity, even though it got nothing to do with his quantum theory. Just signs of the time.

The absolute mechanistic worldview was upended. No more just pure cause-effect closed continuum. People in motion. German marks devalued to the point of needing a basket-full to buy a loaf of bread.

Zimbabwe of their time.

People whose worldview were challenged and upended could not find rest.

What once was an anchor now turned deadwood, stability stagnation.

What a way to end, from what a way to start.

I want to bless that child, my closest friend’s kid.

I saw myself in him. I knew what has happened to me.

I fear what might happen to him.

He who understands the why, can endure the how.

May his life and destiny turn out better than mine, than his dad’s.

May he find simple joy in enduring friendships.

Happiness is hard to define, but is right under your noses.

If he only looked. If only he found the courage to connect . Evil will not prosper where strong men take a stand and draw a line in the sand.

For centuries, men of the same  clan and township have done this. This little boy might someday be called to defend and give his life for a worthy cause.

What an ending!

Maslow and Vietnam

Tocqueville saw in America a country full of contradictions.

He could say the same with Vietnam: people are moving up the Maslow scale, but some want to leap-frog security step i.e. basic needs to self-esteem need.

Nouveau riches switch companions like Hollywood celebs. Forbes or Swiss bank lists almost 200 Millionaires (USD).

Everything is bought in cash. The money machines are counting them non-stop (Zimbabwe-like inflation) .

Dizzying pace.

Traffic weave in and out, as if choreographed by an invisible and illogical conductor;  yet there have been fewer accidents than you might think.

Westerners are seen running a red light like everyone else.  We call that adjustment. When in Rome, do like a Roman.

People here are more aware of health issues than in years past.

My cholesterol result is available in a few hours.  If it’s good, then two eggs please.

I can now move to the next step in the Maslow scale: security.

Love and self-esteem can wait. They have been there since the beginning of time. A man’s glory reflects in the beauty of his woman, and vice versa.

I will leave those to the drama department. For self-actualization, we already got Bill Gates and Bill Clinton.  I have my level to attain to: staying here and surviving here. Traffic during peak hour draws out the best in us, gladiator-like. No wonder young men wear black. It’s their body signal to the world: “don’t mess with me”.

Meanwhile, young Americans are also wearing black, but for an entirely different reason: they are into vampires.  Twilight stuff. A stage of neither living nor dead. Here, it’s very clear to me that people want to get somewhere, preferably up, regardless how many bikes are in their way.

 

worthless currency

The bus rider paid for the fare in Trillions of Zimdollar. Or else, a live chicken will do.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090816/ap_on_re_af/af_zimbabwe_zimdollar

I experienced this back on May 1st, 1975 aboard a Seventh Fleet warship on the way to Subic Bay (thank you President Ford).

We learned from word of mouth that the South Vietnam currency in our possession (my mom emptied her educator’s life savings two days before) was no longer good! From treasure to trash, educator to invalid.

But the sales guy in me wouldn’t give up. I ended up selling some of those worthless papers to bypassing navy guys in the Bay

for souvenirs (their coins enabled me to buy Coke from the vending machine).

I empathize with the Zimbabwe people. Money is money.

A researcher in Dartmouth also found US paper dollars tainted more with Cocaine (due to Recession stress??) than found 2 years ago.

He must have all the latest instruments for detecting tiny traces of the substance.

I admire University labs. Any TA can come up with a thesis to extend H1B visa.

One interesting finding in the study: Detroit, Boston, Baltimore and DC dollars carry more traces of cocaine than Salt Lake City‘s. It certainly indicates that young Mormon men got sent overseas for two years, thus depleting the potential drug using market in that city.

I would start a bridal service in Salt Lake City in anticipating for these guys’ return to start a Mormon family.

(and my ideal brand extension would be a baby clothing line, not Bath, Bed and Beyond, but Marry, Mummy and Munching).

That is, if they are not back from Zimbabwe. My stores will have to take US dollars , not foreign currency.

It’s hard enough to kick-start another consumer craze in this country, much less receiving Zimdollars for all the Chinese-made goods. Man, since when that things get so difficult yet so simple: start a Christmas in August movement.

At least it’s still hot enough to sell high-margin Victoria Secret summer stuff. Will you take live chicken for that?

P.S. As of this edit, London treasury bank notes are no longer issued in cotton. Instead it’s now in plastic. Signs of the time.