Business. As Usual.

Normally, I do not post politically sensitive things on here, but I wrote something last night that I would like to pass along:



Riots in Tibet, the housing market bubble fall out, U.S. teetering on recession, 4000 soldiers dead in Iraq, the presidential race, etc. I could go on and on – there is a lot going on in the world right now and it is overwhelming. As Anthony Robbins says, we all have a need for certainty in life but we also have a need for uncertainty because that adds a bit of adventure and variety in our lives since we don’t know what’s around the corner. I must agree. With so many things going on there is a bit of excitement although my stomach churns every morning when I wake up and read the Wall Street Journal.

Has there always been so much volatility in the world? Or do I just actually care about things now? I’m not sure, but time will tell.

What’s been most fascinating is seeing the world’s reaction towards China’s lock-down of Tibet, and it is equally interesting seeing China’s reaction to the world. For the first time ever China has to vigorously defend it’s actions and try to do some PR work because the Olympics are coming up soon. In the past they would suppress free speech, cut off all information to the outside world, and basically tell the globe to mind their own business. Now they have to worry about what the world thinks because an Olympic boycott, or a large scale pull out by advertisers, could be an embarrassing nightmare for a country who was expecting its grandest and most shining moment ever this summer.

Not sure why the world is so outraged now though? This is business as usual in China.

While everyone was disgusted that U.S. troops took pictures of naked Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the Chinese government clubbed to death 200,000+ dogs for “rabies and population control”. Fact. While some people became enraged that the U.S. supports an independent Kosovo, the Chinese government was selling military arms to the Sudanese government which has been perpetuating the Darfur genocide. Fact. While the world screams about human rights violations because the United States has held a few hundred prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, China is reported to have over one million political prisoners for “endangering the (communist) state”. Fact. Some of you learned something new and shocking in this paragraph. Fact.

As soon as the trendiness of USA-bashing dies down abroad, there will be a lot of Europeans opening their eyes and ears to China more often. The yellow-skinned kid, who is quickly moving towards the front of the classroom, has a lot of skeletons in his closet that they didn’t care to know about before. I think it’s time Europe rethinks its perspective about America with a grain of moral relativism and starts to realize who they should be yelling about at their coffee shops.