View Full Version : What are your thoughts?
Greetings from a very cold and windy San Francisco, CA.
As some of you may know, I returned to the US to attend to my father who was recently diagnosed with Cancer.
I returned on April 2nd to find the country is absolutely upside down. To my dismay, there are are horrors and atrocities scattered about on every news station. In my heart, I realized just how fortunate those of you living in SE Asia are.
To give you a hint of what I'm talking about....
Since I returned a little over a week ago there has been...
Shooting in New York (13 victims killed) all held by a gunman who later killed himself ( I believe)
A radical White Supremist killed 3 police officers because he feared they were coming to take his guns
An 8yr old girl was kidnapped in California and later found dead, her body placed in a suitcase and dumped in a drainage field. The search for the missing girl continued for better than a week. Today, a Pastor's daughter walked into a police station and all but confessed to killing the child who was her neighbor.
A gunman in the Bay Area (Hayward) shot and killed a 19yr old girl and 2 children...one was only a few months old and the other less than a few years old.
What is most disgusting about all this...
It seems that more people are concerned with the fact that President Obama (bowed/didn't bow) when he met the Saudi Prince during his travels last week....This is literally being played on all the major news channels across the US.
"And tonights headline...Did the President show too much respect to the Saudi Prince?"
Media is eating up the fact that he did not bow to the Queen of England, as if he should? Because he is a well traveled man, seasoned in his mannerisms; some would call him a traitor. Others think he disrespected the US and its citizens, because of his actions.
With such small minded thinking, is it a wonder why Americans become targets abroad?
Here is a nation that is more concerned with...rather or not the President bowed when he greeted a Muslim as a sign of respect that the fact that more people have been killed in the US this year (2009) due to violence than American Soldiers killed in Iraq (2009) this year.
What is wrong with this picture?
Greetings from a very cold and windy San Francisco, CA.
As some of you may know, I returned to the US to attend to my father who was recently diagnosed with Cancer.
I returned on April 2nd to find the country is absolutely upside down. To my dismay, there are are horrors and atrocities scattered about on every news station. In my heart, I realized just how fortunate those of you living in SE Asia are.
To give you a hint of what I'm talking about....
Since I returned a little over a week ago there has been...
Shooting in New York (13 victims killed) all held by a gunman who later killed himself ( I believe)
A radical White Supremist killed 3 police officers because he feared they were coming to take his guns
An 8yr old girl was kidnapped in California and later found dead, her body placed in a suitcase and dumped in a drainage field. The search for the missing girl continued for better than a week. Today, a Pastor's daughter walked into a police station and all but confessed to killing the child who was her neighbor.
A gunman in the Bay Area (Hayward) shot and killed a 19yr old girl and 2 children...one was only a few months old and the other less than a few years old.
What is most disgusting about all this...
It seems that more people are concerned with the fact that President Obama (bowed/didn't bow) when he met the Saudi Prince during his travels last week....This is literally being played on all the major news channels across the US.
"And tonights headline...Did the President show too much respect to the Saudi Prince?"
Media is eating up the fact that he did not bow to the Queen of England, as if he should? Because he is a well traveled man, seasoned in his mannerisms; some would call him a traitor. Others think he disrespected the US and its citizens, because of his actions.
With such small minded thinking, is it a wonder why Americans become targets abroad?
Here is a nation that is more concerned with...rather or not the President bowed when he greeted a Muslim as a sign of respect that the fact that more people have been killed in the US this year (2009) due to violence than American Soldiers killed in Iraq (2009) this year.
What is wrong with this picture?
G'day BJ and selamat datang lagi, I have missed your informative essays.. :p
Hope your dad is doing well.
You paint a grim picture of your homeland, and personally it saddens me but are you really surprised at the reactions of your compatriots? :confused:
Oh, and have you handed back your firearms in protest and solidarity with the Anti Gun Lobby yet.. :rolleyes:
Salam
Dari Om.. ;)
Selamat Uncle...
To answer your question, I am suprised. There are far reaching issues of much greater importance on a Global Scale (Kim Jong) and nationally (financial crisis and rather or not the US will lay off borrowing from China), further bailouts, buyouts, Gov sponsored takeovers/makeovers etc etc etc etc
It all amounts to a ton of posturing to no avail. Obama is on the right track. He is reaching out to a world to build a bridge (no shoes tossed in Turkey!!!) and he is well received. In the narrow mindedness that it appears some Americans have...It is ok or tolerable that certain things take place and more often than not, they are overlooked.
But rather than move towards meeting and networking to improve our lots in life, we are comfortable stagnate and depressed.
I don't know....I just don't know
Welcome back BJ...:)
I was missing to read this kind of posts from you.:cool:
Welcome back BJ...:)
I was missing to read this kind of posts from you.:cool:
No worries O...
I will be introducing topics more frequently:)
Take care.
Haven't tossed my weapons away or offered them up....
But there is something to be said regarding say..."How much is Enough?"
To this I do agree...
Pheasant/Quail season doesn't require the AK-47 or the HK. So why do we have them?
Clearly we need reform.
Haven't tossed my weapons away or offered them up....
But there is something to be said regarding say..."How much is Enough?"
To this I do agree...
Pheasant/Quail season doesn't require the AK-47 or the HK. So why do we have them?
Clearly we need reform.
bloody lucky I don't have access to any weapons, in Oz mite, I would have gone amok long ago.. :eek:
stt_cibubur
12-04-09, 20:13
Hi B33j....welcome back...seem you dont feel home at all in your home country.
Hi B33j....welcome back...seem you dont feel home at all in your home country.
To a great extent...your words are true.
I have spent the better part of 6yrs of my life in SE Asia. In those years I done more living than my 30+ years on this planet. I guess I'm feeling "Home Sick":(
Much the same picture in the UK Joe.
The country, as I knew it, is no more and the changes, alas, are not for the better.
God, I love my KITAS.
Every year I spend about three months in Europe for business. Year after year, IMHO, it is getting worst for my country and a sort of panic invades me just to think that I am gonna have to go there for three long, painful months. I usually spend the remaining 9 months thinking on how I could avoid it.
Hopefully in a few years from now I'll sell my companies there and just stay and develop businesses here :)
I also feel more "at home" here in Indonesia . In the past my country was like Indonesia now . For me it seems that developing the country is turning it more "cold" in terms of human relations .
My family were worried about me coming to Indonesia but I feel so safe here. I went to the Philippines recently and didn't feel safe at all. In the Philippines and Thailand you hear of foreigners getting knocked off all of the time. I love the friendliness of the people here and the pretty laid back way of life.
My family were worried about me coming to Indonesia but I feel so safe here. I went to the Philippines recently and didn't feel safe at all. In the Philippines and Thailand you hear of foreigners getting knocked off all of the time. I love the friendliness of the people here and the pretty laid back way of life.
I fully agree with you ... never been to Thailand but the recent news says it all.
I spent four years in the Philippines on Luzon with my Indonesian wife, whilst we were there, the local mayor was shot dead, the local Chief of Police was ambushed and shot dead on his way to work, a guy was shot dead in a Karaoke Bar for not singing "My Way" correctly, a Filipino manager at the factory I was a consultant at was attacked with a pick axe on his way home from work. An Italian consultant on his way to us was kidnapped at the airport and taken to what he thought was his hotel and robbed, whilst his true company driver was waiting for him oblivious to the fact. I could recount endless other shootings, killings and kidnappings etc.
I have walked around Jakarta alone more than slightly innebraited at 3am and stopped on my home at a Warung on Sabang for Nasi Goreng Kambing and have never had a problem. would I do that on Luzon or in Manila.... never!!
However in saying the above about the Philipinnes. The Filipinos do protest against their govt peacefully at EDSA not like the Thais have chosen to do, let's hope history never repeats itself here again in the same vein.
As each day passes, I look for more and more ways to find the passion that I once held for the land. Unfortunately, all manners of finding that passion has escaped me. I so thoroughly enjoy SEA. I've been fairly lucky in the sense that I have avoided major issues and therefore remained relatively safe.
I agree with the comment regarding safety. Indonesia and Malaysia are by far two of the safest countries in the world.
Thanks for your comments guys/gals...keep it coming!!!!
Every month or so you hear stories like this one from the Philippines
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/philippines/5153874/British-businessman-murdered-in-Philippine-shooting.html
I was thinking of moving there but like it here in Indonesia much better. I think guns in the U.S. and the Philippines have a lot to blame for the crime rates there.
Today Wed 15 April 2009 Jakarta Post:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/04/15/is-jakarta-a-bad-place-work-say-it-ain’t-so.html
To summarize...Businessweek is said to report that Jakarta is the 2nd worst place for expats to work, above Riyadh and below Lagos. It cites pollution, disease, political violence and availability of goods and services as drawbacks.
And I thought falling down a pothole was a serious problem here.
David
....makes you wonder where Business Week get their information to put out such a list. There they go again (US media) stigmatizing conditions and situations they don't fully understand.
Today Wed 15 April 2009 Jakarta Post:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/04/15/is-jakarta-a-bad-place-work-say-it-ain’t-so.html (http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/04/15/is-jakarta-a-bad-place-work-say-it-ain%E2%80%99t-so.html)
To summarize...Businessweek is said to report that Jakarta is the 2nd worst place for expats to work, above Riyadh and below Lagos. It cites pollution, disease, political violence and availability of goods and services as drawbacks.
And I thought falling down a pothole was a serious problem here.
David
Who ever wrote that has not been to Manila and/or Cabuyao, Santa Rosa or Calamba on Luzon, please see my post above.
....................................... I think guns in the U.S. and the Philippines have a lot to blame for the crime rates there.
I also think the same , as this seems to apply to my country , where there are too many guns/crimes . I would say that guns , poverty and drugs make a very dangerous combination .
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