Open Your Eyes

As any non-native will agree, there are blissful advantages and gross disadvantages to being from a minority group of the population, whether or not you acknowledge it. I was born in Cambridge, England, to a Dutch father and an American mother. Whilst I still haven't figured out what nationality I am 16 years down the line, I do know that I am not English, despite having lived here for 13 of the those past 16 years. However, I have been careful to keep my mouth shut when controversial topics involving my parental homelands come into play. That does not mean that I do not get jibed at due to my parentage, but I do what I can not to provoke this bigotry/ racism.

That brings me on to my next point. Thanks to Martin Luther King Jr, the West and beyond is acutely sensitive of white on black racism. There has been a campaign from the Football Association here in England to "Kick Racism out of Football." Generally speaking this effort, and other likewise movements have made black-targeted racism the bane of society. Yes, it is true, of all ethnic minorities of the post-WWII era, the Blacks, sorry, African-Americans suffered the most, but that doesn't mean nobody else suffered. To this day, Subcontinental Asians are the butt of jokes in the UK. Is this racism? Yes. Is it being actively discouraged? Not loudly enough.
But it isn't just foreign races that are feeling the heat in the UK. Everyday at school, without fail, I will face an anti-American jibe, with varying levels of intensity and thus offense. Likewise, due to connections with the Middle Kingdom, I often face tirades of verbal diarrhea with regards to China. I know its not racism, but it can be very offensive.

Unfortunately, so regularly does this occur that I have grown to grin and bear it, but the fact that racism and bigotry are so widespread and so acceptable is really shocking, considering that the UK is part of the UN, NATO and the EU, all organizations which thrive on (supposedly) international unity and tolerance.

The political noise regarding what is an annoyance for me, but a serious issue for others, is virtually zero, which for me indicates that people a) don't realise that they are spewing offensive vitriol, or b) accept it as part and parcel of "the British Experience."

I sure hope somehow its neither, as I absolutely adore the coarse nature of life in the UK, but too often people up the sandpaper gradient too far. However, I realise that, as ever, the great majority share my abhorrence of racism. Credit to all but the putrid minority for wiping out one facet to racism, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

Just open your eyes, and speak out. It works.

Déjà Vu

A mere 7 years ago, George W. Bush was sitting in a south Florida classroom. A secret service aid broke the news of the 9/11 attacks. The clock had begun, and by zero-hour, he had started not one, but two wars in the Islamic world.
Fast forward to April 2008. Dubya has but another 8 months in office, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan show no signs of abating and yet change is supposedly in the air.
In one corner, we have Hilary Clinton, wife of Bill. You know, the only President to admit to "doing it" in the Oval Office. The resolute wife she is, Hilary stuck by her man in his hour of need, later becoming Senator for New York.
Facing the Nightmare from New York is Barack "the Baller" Obama. The 6-1 Flyin' Hawaiian, a relatively fresh-faced kid who cut his teeth in South-side Chicago after waltzing through Jakarta is my choice for...The 2008 Democratic Nomination.
For me, what puts Obama front and center is his determination to promote peaceful resolution to America's overseas problems. Whilst Clinton stoically denied the possibility of talking with the world's less...savory political leaders, Obama expressed willingness to just talk with Iran and North Korea. The offspring of a Kansan and a Kenyan, Obama is used to handling potentially contentious multicultural issues. Evidently Hilary the humbug does not share that experience...
In a recent Q&A sesh in Philadelphia, Clinton was quoted as saying,

"I want the Iranians to know that if I´m the president, we will attack Iran. In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."

As Dr Muhammad Megalomattis wrote in The American Chronicle, Clinton is just making herself look, " Irrelevant, inconsistent and utterly disastrous."
Likewise, whilst I'm just one person, I'm surprised Hilary hasn't learnt from Americas past forays into foreign conflict. Let me summarize: The results have been downright ugly, and if Clinton gains the nomination, we have more downright ugly results to look forward to.

I've got Mental Issues

No, this does not mean I'm about to start spending time in the Learning Support department at school. All it means is that you don't want to get on my bad side on the tennis court.
As with most individual sports, a strong "mental game" is a key to success in the tennis world. Even if you've got the forehand of Roger Federer, the backhand of Richard Gasquet and the serve of Andy Roddick, if you have a flimsy mental game, you're not going anywhere fast.
You may be wondering why I'm writing this. Here's why: today, in my usual Sunday morning battle with my dad, I found myself up 6-2, 4-1. Things were going great. I broke daddio to love and was steaming towards the finish line. Serving to go up 5-1, I managed to hit 3 double faults and a net cord. Then 4 more net cords. I was reeling. It was now 4-3, and my frustration could be seen by looking at the stylish white streaks running down my racket head. I lost one more game to make it 4-4, but then managed to crawl back ahead to 5-4. I even broke to match point, but alas I ended up going down 7-5 and tripling the expletive count. It was 12:30 and a lot of english homework was sitting on my desk, so the game was called. The final score: 11-9 to me, but I was on the verge of tears. I hadn't even lost, but I was upset.
That's the thing about tennis. When you hit an emotional high, its impossible, or virtually impossible to hit a shot out. When you sink to the valley floor, the opposite scenario prevails. It's a frustrating sport, as Andy Roddick summarized well: "even on championship, you're not playing to win, you're playing not to lose."
A-Rod's right. The easiest way to win is just to loop everything to the back of the court. But its not satisfying to win that way. Its satisfying as hell to win with deft cross-court backhands, blistering down-the-line forehands or pinpoint aces, but it just so happens that those are tough shots to hit consistently over at least 2 sets, so when things don't go your way, its easy to get down on yourself. Pointless, but easy. And that's a fault I share with many of my tennis-playing brethren.

Trouble in Paradise...or not

Vancouver, the most livable city in North America according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is also the bank robbery capital of the continent, according to a Police press release. Still, the titular analogy doesn't really fit my tack for this post. I highly doubt anyone would have referred to GM Place and the Vancouver Canucks as paradise. Nonetheless, there is trouble.
People were expecting the last remnants of the pre-lockout Canucks to become history this offseason, but instead the man who led the Canucks out of the lockout has seen his head roll. General Manager is"unemployed for the first time in 20 years."
The general consensus is that Nonis will go down favorably in the history books for the Luongo deal alone, but as Tony Gallagher said, that deal basically fell into his lap. However, Nonis did bring the solid drafting that was lacking during the Brian Burke era. Still, Nonis must use some incredible hand cream for his trigger finger is really never itchy. No one will attack him for maintaining his deep prospect pool, but other than the Luongo deal, no proven players came Vancouver's way during Nonis's reign from 2005-2008. Yes, the team is rock solid on defense, and goaltending is outstanding, but fearlessness will be required starting July1st. The Canucks have around $2o million in capspace to fill at least 5 roster spots. This is an opportunity the team has to make the most of, for the Canuckss are almost at the point of being a legit cup contender. A successful offseason should move them up those extra notches.
The '08 draft is also said to one of the deepest ever. Current caretaker GM Steve Tambellini is known for his astute judgment of prospects, so a permanent promotion for him may not be a bad idea, particularly if the opportunity to draft rugged centerman Kyle Beach comes along. His acquisition would go a long way to beefing up a team regarded as too small and too soft. They say leave the pros to their work, so I'll refrain from further armchair GMing, but since the hockey sense of the Aquilini family is, as of yet, questionable, I will suggest a resolution.
Pry Jim Nill, another astute draft mind and pair him with Tambellini as co-GMs, stockpiling some amazing managerial talent. Then slot in Captain Canuck, Trevor Linden, as assistant GM as he learns more about the executive side of the NHL. Tambellini knows the organization inside out, Linden knows the CBA inside out and Nill knows drafting inside out. What more could you want? As Nonis keeps insisting even after losing his job, the Vancouver Canucks are a but a few pieces away from a deep playoff run. Let's just hope the new guy(s) can unearth those missing cogs.

Laughable

Boy, when global warming or a tsunami gets to Dubai...

Guiding Light

As an American citizen living in the United Kingdom, I have been the victim of my fair share of anti-American jibes. Prior to that awful day back in November 2000, I was able to seek solace in the fact that there was nothing really fundamentally wrong with my homeland. But then George W. Bush stepped into the Oval Office. People screamed “how can the world’s powerful country be ruled by an idiot?” Try as I might, I could not summon an answer. Similarly, when John Kerry was ousted from the White House race in 2004, people more or less laughed, “How can the world’s most powerful country elect an idiot to the Presidency, twice?” Even making remarks about Tony “brown-nose” Blair did little more than land me in hot water.

But now I am glad to announce that the dark ages are over. America has found a guiding light out of this mess. No, not Vietnam vet John McCain, who once said, with a straight face, that he was willing to keep US troops in Iraq for another century in order to get the job done.

And sorry, I’m also not talking about Hilary Clinton, who basically rose through the ranks due to her marital status and has wavered of Iraq for the last 5 years.

Nope, I’m talking about Barack Obama. For starters, he is the only Presidential candidate whose name is not recognized by Microsoft Word. Now that, boys and girls, epitomises change right there.

On a more serious level, the United States, a country where 44% of the population is non-white, has waited 232 years to elect a non-white leader. For the first time, the front runner is black. If Obama is elected, America would be uplifted in the knowledge that racial boundaries had been bowled over. This would be a success for ethnic minorities all over the world, safe in the knowledge that power is not reliant on numbers. In a sense of the word, I can identify with the ethnic oppression many minorities deal with on a day to day basis. No, I’ve never been physically beaten or intimidated due to my mixed blood, but I have been jibed on a regular basis, something which will never become bearable.

That is why a multi-ethnic president is needed: so that the rest of the world can just maybe consider re-evaluating their stance concerning the US of A.

Such is the magnitude of Barack Obama’s international potential that we could be seeing a non-military solution to the Iraq problem by 2013, the end of Obama’s potential first term. This is not just more political hot air: Obama is the only candidate so far that has said he would be willing to talk to leaders from “The Other Side,” people such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-Il. This shows an exemplary commitment to world peace. Whilst that may not seem particularly relevant in Chorpus Christi, Texas, or Montgomery, Alabama but to a teenager living overseas, international harmony is of the utmost importance.

But Obama is not a one trick pony. In a March 2007 Washington Post opinion column, Journalist Eugene Robinson characterized him as “the personification of both-and,” a messenger who rejects “either-or” political choices, and could “move the nation beyond the “Culture Wars”” of the 1960s. To some, this may sound like flip-flopping, but for a potential President to come out and say that he’ll work with people to the benefit of the greater good says a lot about his commitment to national progression, and so not only could he brighten America’s overseas image, he may be the key to reviving the deathly ill dollar.

People may say Obama lacks in experience but the kind of promise emanating from Barack Obama is established at birth. I am not a religious person, but I know I will be praying on November 4^th 2008 is the beginning of a brighter era for America. Never before has the country been in such a rut, but at the same time never have there been such momentous prospects of renewal. This is just too good an opportunity to miss.

Journalistic Breakdown

As an aspiring journalist, I know that everything should be written from a balanced point of view, accommodating both sides of the argument. I don't like it, but it is a rule to live by. But in the realm of Western media, it appears this mantra is just plain theory, not taken seriously. Case in point: the Olympic Torch protests. Since early March, angry torrents have been unleashed at the Middle Kingdom, squarely placing the blame for the uprisings centered around Lhasa on the CCCP. Never mind that no independent casualty counts have been published, the press has been attacking Beijing with ruthless abandon.
Never mind that the whole purpose of the Olympiad is international unification and pacifism. Too often, the Games have been used a platform for political noisemaking, and the consequences of this are routinely ugly. This doesn't change my perspective on the situation in Tibet, peaceful mediation is still necessary, but as if proving my earlier point, if the Games hadn't been used as a political forum, none of this would have come about.
Now people are moaning about the steadfastness of the blue tracksuited- Torch Guards. If people are going to try and physically extinguish the torch, what choice do they have but to be heavy-handed. Note that nobody says a thing about the equally heavy-handed procedures used by the Gendarmerie and Met Police used to disperse protesters. Until the protests are fairly examined from both standpoints, the protests will seem flawed. Never mind that most of the protesters don't know Jiang Zemin from Wen Jiabo, they just get a kick out of making noise.
But the real reason behind the Western badmouthing of China? They are scared sh**less.

Cleaning in Progress

Cleaning in progress: that is what signs at Helsinki’s Vantaa airport should read. Sure, from a physical perspective, the terminal is as clean as a Nordic gutter.[1] No, it is the schedule and transfer procedure that needs examining. See, today we flew from Shanghai’s Pudong Airport to Helsinki. Our flight got in 20 minutes late, so we knew that we were facing a tight connection. Imagine the sigh-cum-curse that rose from our group upon arriving at the connections area when we were greeted by 500 sweaty travellers scrumming around a collection of metal detectors. That’s right. We missed our flight thanks to a completely redundant security check. Even requesting that the flight be held at the gate yielded no effect: apparently Finnair values reputation above profit margin, to the extent that our flight left 17 passengers hanging when it left 10 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time.

This would be not such a malady if Vantaa airport was slightly better-equipped at security points. The average age of the staff could not have exceeded 25 and this lack of experience shone through brighter than the Olympic torch. Let’s just put it this way: my laptop, removed from its bag, had to be scanned twice.

However, things took an upswing when we huddled around the transfer desk at gate level: miraculously, there were 17 spare seats on the 19:30 departure to Heathrow. We were getting out tonight, and with €17 meal tickets to boot. Several hours and a duty-free café binge later, we were on the runway. Like the final chapter of a book that meanders on with no real direction, this annoying episode of what was otherwise a memorable trip had come to a close.

Yet one point of confusion remained. Finnair’s modus operandi is obviously to provide a gateway between Asia and Europe, to such an extent that the connections queue was longer than the immigration line. So if even 100 people face missed flights on a daily basis, that is €700,000 in replacement tickets Finnair has to fork out per month, equating to at least €8,400,000 in lost profit per annum. I’m no economist, but in a business as precarious as the airline industry, you’d want to clean up your act to avoid chucking that kind of money down the drain.

It’s a shame that the ground staff are so incompetent, for the onboard experience is exemplary. Even on the aging MD-11s, seats are spacious and portable entertainment devices are available free of charge. The new A340s are again spacious, and offer the latest technology as far as inflight entertainment is concerned. The intra-European fleet, whilst not fancy, is extremely comfortable. But the best bit: the coffee is fantastic. Basically, Finnair have a great foundation for success. They just need to clean up their act a tad.

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[1] Which is to say, spotless and shiny.

A Tribute

You maybe remember that prior to arriving in Beijing, I expressed some scepticisms regarding the integrity of CITS, China’s state-run tourist service. Well, I’m glad to confess my mistake: my experience of the company was nothing short of terrific. Thanks in large part to our guide, Cao Haisheng, a.k.a Peter, the tour was as seamless as a hockey puck. Unflappable even in the madness of Beijing train station, he truly was the shining light that led us from city to city.

Whilst money does change hands, it usually does so above board in the form of tips. “Connections” in that regard don’t operate on a financial basis but instead it’s more of “you do this for me, I do this for you.” And boy did “they” do stuff for us. From the top-rate hotels to the delectable food, I have very few complaints, and those few are the result of “us” doing stuff for “them” – the silk mill restaurant in Suzhou springs to mind.

The quality of the local guides was also great. Combining professionalism, humour and good yarns added to the value of the tour. Quick-thinking also proved a valuable asset. Literally whatever the weather, Peter and co. made sure we were warm, safe and dry, making sure nothing detracted from our experience of a fantastic country.

For that, here’s to you, Peter and co.

Summing it up from Shanghai

Alas, the fun and games of the past two weeks have wound down to a close. I remember thinking back in England, that 14 days was a long time to basically go on holiday. Well if that was the case, it sure went awfully fast. So fast that is hasn’t quite sunken in that I spent a fortnight in China, even as I fly towards Helsinki and London beyond.

Passing through culturally rich cities such as Xi’an, Luoyang and Taiyuan to financially rich ones such as Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai, there were bound to be limitless highlights, and that remained true. From the Great Wall near Beijing to the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an to Shanghai’s Bund, there was something for everyone, and most people enjoyed everything.

To pick out one highlight for myself would be incredibly difficult, but I loved meeting up with my old classmates in Nanjing and Shanghai. After 7 days basically seeing China solely from a tourist’s perspective, it was refreshing to get down to street-level, as it were, and explore some of my old stomping grounds with friends I had not been able to see in 18 months. It was also interesting to see how Nanjing had changed, and thankfully my sentimental hole-in-the-walls were still around. For instance, Gold and Silver, across the alley from the Nanjing University Foreign Student Dormitory, was thriving like never before, despite the atrocious grub served up from behind a tinted glass screen.

It was also an “experience” to travel on China’s older sleeper trains. Whilst the 11-hour jaunt from Beijing through the loess areas to Taiyuan was a mundane, if bumpy affair, the 13-hour hellride from Pingyao to Xi’an was one for the history books. After arriving at Pingyao Station by golf cart, we made our way to the platform shivering thanks to the 2-degree weather. Relief emanated from the group as the train drew in. And then we stepped into our compartment. And started shivering once more. The thermometer read 2 degrees Celsius and despite 4 people occupying an area of 10m2, the temperature scarcely rose through the night. Hardly a comfortable experience, but it there was an amusing mystique to it, although that may have been the effect of the whiskey.

Still, that was but a minor flaw in what was otherwise a fantastic trip. The hotels were generally fantastic, but the Zhengzhou Crowne Plaza and Salvo Hotel Shanghai exceed description. The food also was excellent. In short, it was a lifestyle I would have little trouble adjusting to.

It was a relief to hear that China’s civilian wealth is still on the up, but press censorship is still a problem, as I experienced last night watching Channel News Asia’s coverage of the Tibet protests along the torch route. Whenever anything vaguely pro-Tibetan came up, the screen went black. Likewise, when I was surfing the BBC News website, I loaded up an article concerning the Tibet unrest and seconds later, “the server timed out.”

Both ethnic suppression and journalistic censorship have to abate before China is accepted as a fully modern country. Given that the CCCP is hell-bent on modernisation, it is difficult to understand this reluctance. Whilst it would be difficult to do so without Tibet and Xinjiang running riot, it is necessary in order for China to save face. Whilst pride will be hurt, it is worth sacrificing Tibet and Xinjiang, or at least granting them greater autonomy in order for China to build up its flagging international respect.

Still, from the relative safety of a foreigner’s perspective, China is a wonderful place. Living is both cheaper and more fun than Western Europe or North America. Cultural relics and modern wonders are both innumerable. Whilst there is trouble in paradise at present, once it recedes China will be as popular ever, and I will be up there saying “I told you so.”