Camila Vallejo Dowling

This is (was?) an activist blog, and I saw these two interesting activism articles in the Times this week:

1. Just Don’t Call Her Che: an article about Camila Vallejo Dowling, who is leading hundreds of people for education reform in Chile. According to the article, she beats senators in debates on prime time TV and leads protests with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators. According to the article, she’s the world’s most famous student leader and has the governmment going crazy over how to deal with the issues. Chile, according to the article, is economically successful, and she has still managed to pull people away from their daily lives and get an audience.

I can say honestly that I wish I knew more about how other countries operate. It’s one thing to say, for example, that we like the way Sweden mandates maternity and paternity leave, or how we love Canadian healthcare. It would be better to understand the system from a closer perspective. Is the Chilean educational system really so unfair that people follow Camila Vallejo? Or is this an example of exceptional leadership? I will say that I can’t imagine an American 23 year old going head-to-head with a U.S. Senator in a debate without getting himself/herself whooped, so major props to her!

Too bad I don’t understand the Spanish. Nottyboy, what’s she saying?

2. The Mixtape of the Revolution talks about how hip hop is one of the most potent forces in politics in other countries. The article opens:

DEF JAM will probably never sign them, but Cheikh Oumar Cyrille Touré, from a small town about 100 miles southeast of Dakar, Senegal, and Hamada Ben Amor, a 22-year-old man from a port city 170 miles southeast of Tunis, may be two of the most influential rappers in the history of hip-hop.

Pretty heady stuff.

Someone once asked me: What is activism? I said something along the lines of “creating change that influences a lot of people.” Whether we’re trying to create art outside of The Typical, or whether we’re trying to get people to think differently or whether we’re trying to invest money responsibly, I think that’s the nature of activism.

I do have to say–life looks a lot more dramatic in other places of the world. 200,000 people marching? A hip hop artist whose words are actually getting government to take notice? American students don’t march much these days. And the last time an American politician paid attention to a hip hop artist was when Kanye said that George W. Bush doesn’t care about black people! Whatever happened to this kind of activism in America?

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Thanks to Eurasian Sensation, who posted this article: The One-Shot Society. The article is about the educational system in Korea, where students cram like mad for one college entrance test, a test which determines the career that they will have for the rest of their lives. In Korea, as the article mentions, people rarely change jobs, so it’s imperative that students get into the best university and then into the best company. We’ve spoken about this trend in Korea and how it limits their opportunities to make decisions later in life, which is why many Koreans try to become doctors.

I think this system is reflective of what Koreans value: intelligence, diligence, preparation, and consistency. This system will greatly help Korea in many ways, but of course, there are side effects as well. I like how the article mentions the tech entrepreneur who can’t find employees because he’s not Samsung. In the U.S., that guy would have no problems recruiting (especially with our high level of employment).

I can’t really say whether their system is better or worse than ours–they don’t seem to have the stagnation or unemployment that we do. What I would like to say is that America has an ambiguity problem. I think we like to think that we value education, but we really don’t. Whereas Koreans value intelligence, diligence, preparation, and consistency, Americans value selling and entrepreneurship. I remember one of Robert Kiyosaki’s books where he tells a novelist that if she wants to be a well-known writer, she should learn to sell, so that she can sell her book. Even our most powerful citizens, the politicians who run this country, spend much if not most of their time selling themselves to voters.

I think that’s ultimately our problem these days. We’ve got great salespeople and a great culture of entrepreneurship and sales communication. Outside of the low-cost computing innovations, we just haven’t invested in creating great new technologies to sell. Whereas in the past we were going to the moon, taking on nuclear technology, or miniaturizing transistors, we no longer invest as much in the new technologies that we need: green technologies, alternative energy, etc. We need to shift more of our resources into research, so that we have great new technologies to sell to the world.

Related to this topic, Shark Tank is back. Today, there was a great episode in which a manufacturing entrepreneur told the sharks he wanted to keep jobs in the U.S. and refused to outsource to Asia. The sharks told him he was being stubborn and short-sighted. One shark told him that he should follow Apple’s example. Another said that even though it was not cost-effective to manufacture in America, it would still create jobs here since they would eventually need sales and marketing people! So you can where our nation’s focus is.

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Selfish Reasons To Have More Kids was recommended by a friend. I was interested in the major thesis–that nature is more influential in a child’s life than nurture, and that we worry too much about our kids for no reason, since they’ll mostly tend to turn out just like us. Caplan even quotes Steve Sailer on page 3! (I’m assuming it’s the same Sailer dude who helps the loons navigate the world of HBD.)

It’s a breezy read. The “nature” thing was going on all kinds of illogical tangents with twin and adoption studies, such as the “fact” that adopted Korean kids of rich white folk don’t go as far as biological kids of rich white folk (because, you know, adopted Korean kids naturally fit into the family just as well as the kids who look like the rest of the family), or that parents who taught their kids to read often have adult children these days who don’t read (as if blogs and the internet have no effect on this). But at the end of the chapter, Caplan hedges by saying that’s what he believes and that the studies have limitations, such as the fact that the adoptions were mostly middle class families. He also relieves himself of the Sailer extrapolation by saying kids in the ghetto might not stay in the ghetto if given the opportunity.

Aside from the main reason I picked it up, the book does have some interesting economic observations about the price of kids and our investment/recuperation of our investment. For example, he writes about grandkids, and how when we get old, we often want nothing more than to spend more time with our grandkids, and that we can increase our chances of having grandkids by having more kids. He lists some interesting statistics about child safety, and how children today are safer than ever despite the media stories, and he says that the best way to influence how your kids turn out is to choose your mate wisely.

One problem that my friend who recommended the book brought up was the whole idea about your kids turning out just like you. As my friend said, “But what if you’re not happy about how you turned out?” Maybe that’s the mate selection. Marry a doctor so you can say, “My Son, the Doctor.”

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The NY Times had a great article on Apple and why Apple employs so few people in the U.S.: Apple, America, and the Squeezed Middle Class. We’ve talked about Tyler Cowan’s Great Stagnation and how Google, Twitter, and Facebook don’t need lots of bodies to make their products, but Apple, a company that manufactures electronic components, does need lots of people. They just don’t hire them here. Apple made $400,000 per employee last year, in large part because they outsource their work overseas. Apple says that the labor costs aren’t the major reason for outsourcing, that there are other logistical reasons for centralizing their work in Asia. But when Foxconn, the company that assembles iPhones, pays many of its workers $17 a day, it’s a bit hard to believe that labor costs don’t play a role.

Check this out:

The facility has 230,000 employees, many working six days a week, often spending up to 12 hours a day at the plant. Over a quarter of Foxconn’s work force lives in company barracks and many workers earn less than $17 a day. When one Apple executive arrived during a shift change, his car was stuck in a river of employees streaming past. “The scale is unimaginable,” he said.

And that’s the hard part about all this. If we assume that labor costs aren’t that big of a deal (I don’t believe this, but let’s accept it for the sake of argument), it’s still hard to expect Americans to leave their families and occupy dorms where they work 6 days a week, 12 hours a day, and are on call if anything needs immediate attention. I’ve heard some Chinese calling Americans “lazy” for not wanting to do this, but is that really fair? Does it make sense for people used to living in the middle class to sacrifice everything for their company, living apart from their families and lives outside of work?

Akrypti from 8Asians posted this excellent piece a while ago on Chinese factories, and I agree that these megacompanies are making life better in China. These jobs are better than many others in the region, so it’s hard to accuse Apple of exploiting Chinese if the Chinese want these jobs. Instead, I think these companies are exploiting Americans. Their intellectual property and physical resources are protected by the American government and military, which is funded by American taxpayers, many of whom are denied employment by these companies which either subcontract out their work to countries with lower standards of living or only hire H1B visa holders. One might even well argue that their robust sales come from the fact that they are American companies.

As for Americans, I’m sure some people will read this and point to a defect in American culture, a kind of middle class entitlement that Americans seem to have. I agree with these people that many Americans do feel entitled (see AM/AF Couple’s excellent comment here), but I also think it’s perfectly fair to ask American companies to hire Americans who pay taxes into a system that makes their work possible.

I think the best response I’ve seen to this whole “lazy American” complaint is here, where a blogger responds to the marine in the picture below:

The blogger Max Udargo writes:

Do you really want the bar set this high?  Do you really want to live in a society where just getting by requires a person to hold down two jobs and work 60 to 70 hours a week?  Is that your idea of the American Dream?

Do you really want to spend the rest of your life working two jobs and 60 to 70 hours a week?  Do you think you can?  Because, let me tell you, kid, that’s not going to be as easy when you’re 50 as it was when you were 20.

And what happens if you get sick?  You say you don’t have health insurance, but since you’re a veteran I assume you have some government-provided health care through the VA system.  I know my father, a Vietnam-era veteran of the Air Force, still gets most of his medical needs met through the VA, but I don’t know what your situation is.  But even if you have access to health care, it doesn’t mean disease or injury might not interfere with your ability to put in those 60- to 70-hour work weeks.

And that’s the issue with American “entitlement.” One feels spoiled by asking for decent working conditions, but do we really want to live in a world where a person is forced to give his entire life for pure survival? And is it really fair for companies to rely on the protection of the American government paid for by American workers who can no longer get jobs because American companies won’t hire them? As Ha Joon Chang mentions in 23 Things, capital has a nationality. These companies won’t relocate–they know that their livelihood is dependent on being in America. While the rich are buying off the government with their lobbyists, it should be still possible to form a voting block that can deliver justice to the American people.

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Thanks, Raguel, for linking us to the above video, where a scary martial arts dude with a Boston accent teaches us how to escape from the mount. I have to say that it’s the best mount defense that I’ve ever seen. I imagine it would also do wonders as a defense against jujigatame (cross arm lock). If biting is in my opponent’s arsenal, I also imagine I’d be less likely to go for a triangle choke too. It hurts just thinking about it. I like the video above, along with some of his other videos, like how to survive two attackers.

There are some videos out there that I feel are completely useless, like how to use Wing Chun against a grappler or fighting from the guard (check out the “finger lock” at around 2:25) Like a lot of things in the martial arts, a person has to be able to discern good advice from useless advice. It’s easy to speculate on what would work vs. actually knowing what works. It’s also easy to get killed by by taking bad advice.

I have a feeling that there are people on this site who have done some streetfighting in their time, so if you’ve got an opinion on the title topic, let the words fly. I’m particularly interested in your opinion on:

1. What is a good martial art to study for self defense?
2. What is the difference between MMA and actual streetfighting?
3. What advice would you give to someone trying to prepare himself to be street ready?

I’ve done judo, and I think judo is really great for confidence, which is a good thing to have in a fight, but I don’t know if people really ever grapple on the street. If you do judo or BJJ or wrestling, you probably have to supplement it with a striking art like karate, wing chun, boxing, or Muay Thai. I think they all work, as long as you’re studying with a competent teacher.

I think MMA and other martial arts competitions are great for getting yourself used to pressure and going “all out,” and it’s good for getting in shape, but pressure-wise there isn’t much that can’t be duplicated in BJJ, judo, wrestling, boxing, or Muay Thai. (I think it’s vitally important for someone to have experience in some kind of “all out” competition.) It’s probably safer to get involved with any of the other “all out” martial arts–MMA can cause permanent damage.

What are your thoughts?

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For those of you who like historical movies, or for those of you who are hungry for yet another AF/WM movie, check out The Lady with Michelle Yeoh. I read about it on 8A. Check out the blogger’s thoughts, and also check out the opinion of the commenters.

I agree with the commenter xxxtine, who writes: “It is through the help of her husband Michael Aris, on the outside in England, that got her the recognition and ultimately the Nobel Peace Prize. No one would’ve known about her otherwise, or cared to hear if he wasn’t trying to get his wife freed.” What is true of Amy Chua is true of Aung Sung Suu Kyi and is true of Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan–if there isn’t a White man involved with the subject matter, the Western world often doesn’t give a shit. It’s sad but true.

As for Aung Sung Suu Kyi, I like what she stands for, and there’s no doubt that she has some powerful tenacity and personal strength, but I wonder if she’d really make Burma a better place or whether she’d burn the place to the ground and mess it up worse than the military government ever could. Historically speaking, the U.S. government doesn’t always do the best job of picking leaders of other countries.

Anyway, the movie looks well done. And Michelle Yeoh really looks like ASSK.

Edit 5:30: Awww, fuck. I didn’t read the full DailyMail article before posting. You too, Michelle Yeoh?

Michelle Yeoh with her fiance

Michelle gradually fell in love with her subject with whom she had so many similarities. Like Suu, Michelle went to school in the UK; her Hong Kong based parents moved here when she was 15 and she attended the Royal Academy of Dance. She is also in love with a Westerner. The actress was briefly married to Harvey Nichols billionaire Dickson Poon but has been engaged to French Formula 1 boss Jean Todt for five years.

Her huge engagement ring sparkles as she describes how, like Michael Aris, Jean gives her the freedom to do as she chooses.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2084268/The-Lady-Michelle-Yeoh-brings-story-Aung-San-Suu-Kyi-big-screen.html#ixzz1jll8wdpk

That’s another thing the Western world does. Equates Whiteness with freedom.

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Thanks, Notty, for sending the video above. This makes me mad. Everyone needs to watch it.

I’ve spoken with some people in tech, and at the high end, these H1B visas do benefit the U.S. as American companies can hire people from the India Institute of Technology and get the cream of the crop. We do get some top workers who help with our innovation.

On the other hand, companies are also trimming their payroll by getting H1B visas on the cheap, and sometimes (as evident from the American Express case in the video) they’re just trying to cut their costs and taking advantage of “free trade” laws in order to do so. I was surprised when Dan Rather revealed that the law says that American companies don’t need to prove that they have tried to fill a position in the U.S (around 7:50). That’s the problem with politics–the politicians are saying we need more Americans in STEM subjects, but meanwhile the same politicians have created laws designed to benefit corporations at the expense of the American worker. American companies don’t hire many of the STEM people that we already have. I’ve spoken with a few tech managers recently, and they all tell me the same thing–it’s rare for American companies these days to hire American tech people. In every batch of new recruits, the vast majority of hires are H1B visa holders from India.

I feel bad for these unemployed people. You can tell in the video that they’re trying hard not to sound prejudiced, but when the law discriminates against American workers who have paid taxes into creating and supporting this system, it’s hard not to be angry. The government-industrial complex has waged war against the American worker, and the American worker is losing. Mitt Romney believes that corporations are people, which could presage an even greater future power discrepancy between the ruling class and the middle class.

By the way–has anyone here been to India? Is it good living? What I’m thinking is that perhaps there’s a way to create an idea around this–retirement centers for Americans in India. If it’s possible to live like a king or queen on $10k a year in India, perhaps it’s possible to live like a normal person forever with a $50k 401(k) account. India is a democratic country where English is the official language, and the weather is warm. The temples are beautiful, and there are yoga teachers all around, so there would be no shortage of recreational activities. Plus the healthcare facilities are excellent and more affordable (American-trained doctors). Maybe that could be an option for some people. Kinda sucks to have to move because of bad and prejudicial “free trade” laws, but it’s always good to have a backup plan. Maybe the government could pay for these retirement centers as a kind of severance package for the older Americans they use and dispose of.

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This article has been on my mind for the past two months: Advice on Life’s Graying Edge on Finishing With No Regrets. And it was only written two days ago! I was thinking about it even before it was written. Basically, it’s an article that talks about the Cornell University Legacy Project, which has interviews with elderly people on their advice for living well. Bookmark this site:

http://legacyproject.human.cornell.edu/

From the NY Times article:

On marriage:“A satisfying marriage that lasts a lifetime is more likely to result when partners are fundamentally similar and share the same basic values and goals. Although romantic love initially brings most couples together, what keeps them together is an abiding friendship, an ability to communicate, a willingness to give and take, and a commitment to the institution of marriage as well as to each other.”

On career: “the near-universal view was summed up by an 83-year-old former athlete who worked for decades as an athletic coach and recruiter: “The most important thing is to be involved in a profession that you absolutely love, and that you look forward to going to work to every day.” “

On parenting: “Most important, the elders said, is to spend more time with your children, even if you must sacrifice to do so. “

There’s lots more.

Also, check out this post: 5 Regrets of the Dying. It sounds like the common theme is that many felt they weren’t true to themselves. It’s hard because being true to yourself often does result in making less money, but it sounds like most people towards the end of their lives would give up the cash for the experience, which is similar to something Tony Hsieh said about valuing experiences over things.

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China wants you. Job prospects are abundant. The effects of the Great Recession of 2008 may be felt in the United States for years, but they barely scratched China. Demand for native English speakers is white-hot. ChinaJob.com, TheBeijnger.com and Dave’s ESL Cafe are just a few of the places where you can search for work.

There are problems here, of course. China is a nation that unapologetically rejects Western democracy — and yet I am surprised to find that Chinese citizens and the news media have as much freedom as they do. For my money, CCTV News English, a channel offered by China’s major state television broadcaster, is more fair and balanced than Fox News.

There is probably a rice chaser or two who will take his advice in order to take advantage of Pinkerton Syndrome, but those chasers would probably be moving anyway–this option has been available for a long, long time. In this case, the author is making an economic argument. If you’re young and mobile, I’d say that this is probably a great decision to make. You can’t go wrong by learning how people in a different culture live, especially as the Chinese economic juggernaut seems to be moving fast. I know one young Chinese American woman who made this decision last year. The world is a big place, and there is much to learn.

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The Republican primaries are under way, and as is normal with any American election cycle, the craziness has once again begun. The latest craziness surrounds Mitt Romney, the Republican frontrunner. In the video above, Romney says of his father: “He had good advice to me. He said, ‘Mitt, never get involved in politics if you have to win an election to pay a mortgage. If you find yourself in a position when you can serve, why you ought to have a responsibility to do so if you think you can make a difference, you oughta have a responsibility to do so.’” See a ThinkProgress blog post here.

In other Romney news, he says, “I like being able to fire people.” See it here:

Romney’s opponents have been spinning this as proof that Romney is an elitist who is out of touch with the American people. In the first case, they are saying that Romney believes that only the wealthy should run for office. In the second, they’re spinning the story as proof that he identifies with rich business owners who fire people rather than the near 10% of the working population that is unemployed.

Neither of these attacks is a correct portrayal of what Romney said. In the first case, Romney is right–if you’re dependent on winning an election in order to pay your bills, you shouldn’t be running. It’s the same issue that we face with Asian American artists–if you have to play a demeaning Long Duk Dongish character or write some degrading “literature” to pay your bills, you need a second career. Politics should pay money, but people who run should not be in desperation mode.

In the second, he was talking about healthcare. Healthcare should not only be tied to employment because as he says, it creates disincentives for a healthcare company to keep you healthy. I don’t know what Romney would do with healthcare if elected, but I like Romneycare in Massachusetts, which is similar to Obamacare. Again, I agree with what Romney said–although I have no idea what he’d actually implement as President.

It’s just unfortunate that this part of the election is going to come down to who can better misrepresent their opponents’ viewpoints in front of the media. We need these guys to be talking about real ideas, rather than using sneaky media tactics.

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