Speaking of Atheism...

It is mentioned in Obama's inaugural address:

We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof mentions that this is the first time he can recall that "non-believers" have been acknowledged by a president. And the foreign policy section of the speech...

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.

To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame their society's ills on the West, know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.

To those...

(APPLAUSE)

To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

(APPLAUSE)

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.

And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders, nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

...brought tears to my eyes as I read it. He is my president.

Atheism: Sleep in on Sunday mornings

This slogan comes from a campaign in Britain (actually from a failed spin-off in Australia) of advertising about atheism to counter religious groups' advertisements. According to the article, it hasn't set off much controversy, which I think is a definite contrast to how much dissent there would be to such a campaign in the US. There is so much social context in religion and perception of religion. For my final exam, I did interviews based on topics discussed in class. There was one unit on supersitition and belief, and for some reason, one girl ended up talking about religion. She said in Chinese society there is a lot of pressure not to believe. Obviously this social pressure functions in the complete opposite way that social pressure in the US works. It is something I had never really considered.

I've been thinking more about the topic of religion lately after my student's comments and watching Religulous - a Bill Mayer movie about the ridiculousness of religion. I will write more about the movie (which I actually didn't like too much despite some amusing moments and general agreement with many of his ideas) another time.

The lost art of writing

David Brooks' latest column in the New York Times begins like this:

Everything becomes a shorter version of itself. Essays become op-eds. Op-eds become blog posts. Blog posts become Twitter tweets. The Sidney Awards stand athwart technology, yelling stop. They are awarded every year to some of the best examples of long-form journalism and thought.

I do realize the irony of writing about this in a blog post (at least it is not on twitter...), but for someone who is not a journalist, there are obvious benefits to blogging - more than one person can read my thoughts (whether anyone would actually want to is a totally different story). These lines seemed particularly salient to me because of the book I have been reading recently - Team of Rivals, about Abraham Lincoln's life, politics, and rivals. This book has been providing me with a much needed refresher history course and a glimpse of the political genius that was Lincoln. Yet, something that has stood out to me is how much history of this period derives from hand-written letters between leading figures (and their wives) of the time. It makes me somewhat sad to think that the history of today will be derived from e-mail. While e-mail serves many purposes, it lacks the beauty and weight that often is intrinsically present in written letters. Maybe I'm just being nostalgic and a traditionalist, but I don't see that as a bad thing.

Blowback

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. A New York Times article is saying that Pakistani intelligence has been supporting Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group that carried out the horrific attacks in Mumbai. What the article forgets to mention is where ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) picked up the habit of independently aiding/funding outside groups, often times without direct approval from the government. This began during the 1980s when the US used to use ISI as a method for funneling funds and other forms of support to Afghan guerrilla groups fighting the Soviet invasion. Other ramifications of these same actions and, more importantly, abandonment of Afghanistan following Soviet withdrawal, also led to the rise of the Taliban and its subsequent harboring of Al-Qaeda.

Unintended, negative future consequences of present political actions are often referred to as "blowback." One of the quintessential examples of blowback is the 1979 Iranian revolution, which has root causes of the 1950s CIA-led coup, which overthrew a democratically elected leader and returned the very undemocratic Shah to power. Blowback and unintended consequences seem to be hitting the US pretty hard recently, and while I am in no way saying that any of it is deserved, these incidents should at least be a clear sign that we need to consider long-term consequences of US foreign policy endeavers.

In today's world, there has to be some sort of method for analyzing possible future ramifications for present actions. And to some extent at least, this is possible. State Department research before the Iraq War rather correctly predicted some of the disastrous outcomes caused by that invasion (not that it did us much good). Hopefully Obama's government will make a more concerted effort to consider long-term effects, even though it has been an American tradition not to.

能否归回家？ Going home

So as most of you probably know, I'm heading back to the US in August. Yes, I know this means I'm missing the Olympics, but tickets for events are either impossible to get, too expensive, or for events I don't want to see anyway. That and thanks to Olympic security regulations, I need to process my next visa in the US. So to comfort myself for missing the Olympics (which I have always wanted to see live...really, I asked my parents if we could go to Atlanta in 1996), I made a top 10 list (in no particular order) of why I'm glad to be going back:

1. pollution

My biggest complaint, hands down, about Beijing is the air quality. Click the link to see what i'm talking about, though it has gotten much, much better this summer, thanks to temporary measures such as shutting down factories and curbing traffic.

2. subway security checks

They are checking bags at every subway stop (kind of....they sometimes force you to go through the back check, sometimes they don't), but it is causing nightmares (I had a blogpost with a picture of a crazy long line outside one of the stops but he took the picture down...sorry). It will only get worse when the Games actually come.

3. crowds

With 1.3 billion people (all of whom, I swear, live in Beijing), there are always crowds in China, but thanks to the restrictions that limit private cars, more people are taking public transportation. Thankfully this doesn't seem to have greatly affected my daily bus route. But still, the crowds are there.

4. 老外 foreigners

The city will be filled with foreigners who don't speak Chinese. No offense if you're one of them, but I'll be glad to miss the chaos.

5. no street food or cheap, dirty restaurants

Why can't the lady who sells fruit near the office sell me my mangoes in peace? I understand that most foreigners are used to higher levels of sanitary conditions, but I like the cheap food!

6. American television coverage of the Olympics

So the one channel on TV that I watch with any regularity is the sports channel and lets just say they play a lot of Olympic re-runs. Obviously CCTV is not an unbiased organization and all sports channels cheer for their own country, but you could at least give the other team credit (a 好球 here and there when deserved) for their achievements. This does seem to be improving – I watched an international volleyball tournament live recently and the announcers did say “nice shot,” etc for the other team.

7. shopping in peace

Please just let me look at what you have in your store/stall and decide what I want to buy. You bothering me is only going to make me less likely to buy from you.

8. bbq

Ever since the 4^th of July I've been craving bbq. I can't wait!

9. kicking out of migrant workers

Sure, migrant workers are more likely to stare at me, but they're also the ones that built all the Olympic facilities, and from a pure human rights perspective, they should be allowed to stay in Beijing.

10. China's inevitable 小题大做

People have all sorts of theories about what will go down come August 8. Mine is that small groups or individuals will, probably more than once, try to engage in public protest, and I'm pretty sure Beijing will overreact. I really hope such overreaction doesn't happen, but I'm not optimistic.

And obviously it will be great to see everyone. I realized that in the course of a little over a month, I will be in every city that I think of as “home;” this also includes every place, excluding one, where I've lived at least 3 months of my life. (LA, Pennsylvania, bay area...i will also probably be going to Boston and NYC for a day or two...let me know if you'll be in these places!)

PS. I have a few things I've wanted to post...both other people's articles and my own. I will do that ASAP.

看世界 Seeing the world

New York Times foreign correspondent in Shanghai, Howard French, wrote a "going away" (or "going home") article in the International Herald Tribune, as he is returning to the US after 3 decades of reporting from abroad. The last paragraph really struck me:

"Three decades ago, I set out on a journey desiring the world, and though one is humbled to know how much there is to be seen, and how little any one person can understand, there is little room for disappointment."

I also have a desire to see and, more importantly, understand the world. While my chosen career path means that I probably will not see as many places as French has, I will always be tempted to set off one day to wonder around the world. But more importantly, I desire that understanding of how people from vastly different backgrounds think about and view important issues and the world around them.