Chasing Profits – Defeating Truth

November 26, 2010

Ted Koppel writes an interesting and revealing commentary for the Washington Post of how the US media reports opinions as if they were facts.

Koppel writes, “While I can appreciate the financial logic of drowning television viewers in a flood of opinions designed to confirm their own biases, the trend is not good for the republic.… But when our accountants, bankers and lawyers, our doctors and our politicians tell us only what we want to hear, despite hard evidence to the contrary, we are headed for disaster.”

For example, a Reuter’s piece on Yahoo had this lead paragraph in the morning, “China warning on Friday against military acts near its coastline…” as if China would retaliate if anything happened.

From comments I’ve read on the Internet, the US mob reacted as expected calling President Obama a loser for not retaliating in North Korea.

In the afternoon, the replacement lead paragraph said, “China said on Friday it was determined to prevent an escalation of this week’s violence on the Korean peninsula…” I’ve read what the Chinese minister said and this is closer to the truth.

It is obvious a hot-blooded reporter wrote the morning piece for the mob that wants war, since there are voices in South Korea and in the US screaming for blood regardless of the outcome.

Mobs seldom pay attention to history. It takes wiser heads in positions of power to prevail. In the US media and often in Washington DC, there is seldom this level of wisdom to be seen.

An example of a government reacting to what a nationalistic mob demanded led to World War I. By the time that war ended more than sixteen million had been killed, and this all took place because one man had been assassinated.

The same thing happened in Vietnam where more than three million died after the LBJ White House lied and the US media stirred the mob to action.

Over Iraq, opinions and White House lies repeated in the US media stirred the mob again and that led to a war where hundreds of thousands have already died and the violence in Iraq hasn’t ended.

This brings up another point raised from Koppel’s commentary.

Koppel aptly reveals that today’s “free” press has abandoned the truth, because there are millions of Americans that worship the opinions of people such as “Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly – individuals who hold up the twin pillars of political partisanship and who are encouraged to do so by their parent organizations because their brand of analysis and commentary is highly profitable.”

The opposite often happens in China between the state-run media and nationalistic mob.

For example, in May 1999, Chinese nationalism and anger ran high after the US bombing of the PRC’s embassy in Belgrade. Instead of fanning the flames, the state-run media calmed the mob.

Then there was the April 2001 Hainan Island incident caused by the collision of a US spy plane with a PLA fighter jet killing the Chinese pilot.  The same thing happened.

Next, there was the recent Senkaku Island dispute between China and Japan. 

In all three incidents, the state-run media in China calmed nationalist pride and the people’s demand for blood.

It is ironic that in America, the opinionated, biased voices from the so-called “free” media often feeds the mob’s frenzy and the mob signals what it wants to hear, which may lead to another war unless wiser heads prevail.

Discover more at Media Slugfest Using Taiwan

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, American culture, China, Chinese Culture, cultural differences, media, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Passing the Buck

November 26, 2010

Donald Tang writing at The Huffington Post was right to condemn US politicians from both sides of the aisle for blaming China for lost jobs in the US.

China is not responsible. The issue is more complicated than that.

I suggest that most Americans look in a mirror to see whom to blame.

National, consumer and housing debt is part of the problem.

James Wood, an eHow Contributor, says, “Totaling all of the debt outstanding for every adult in the United States yields a stunning result. With $43,000 of national debt, $10,360 of consumer debt and $60,000 of housing debt, the average debt for every adult in the United States is $113,360, as of 2010. With a median household income of just $50,000, that places a huge strain on the ability of people to pay their debts.”

While the government and consumers are paying off this debt, how can they spend money on other items?

Another part of problem is that many Americans are “good” at blaming others.

In fact, many Americans are “good” at blaming others for just about all the problems in the US.

When kids don’t learn, it is the teachers or the unions’ fault—not the kids or the parents, who spend more time with their children than teachers.

I blame the lawyers.

After all, “According to the American Bar Association there are currently 1,116,967 lawyers practicing in the United States. That is approximately one lawyer for every 300 people, or approximately .36% of the total population. These statistics relate only to lawyers currently practicing and maintaining their licenses.” Source: Wise Geek.com

Six Wise.com says, “The U.S. legal system ensures that every American who feels they have been injured or victimized is able to seek justice through the court system.…However, in recent decades the United States has earned the nickname as the most “litigious society” out there, in part due to major increases in lawsuits involving everything from hot spilled coffee to neighbors’ disputes.”

If it weren’t for all these people hiring lawyers to file lawsuits, there would be more money to spend on consumer goods, which would put more people to work.

See how easy it is to blame something or someone else for America’s lost job and economic problems.

There are jobs out there.

After all, there are eleven million illegal aliens in the US working in the fields, cleaning swimming pools and houses, mowing lawn, etc. I see my neighbors Latin housekeepers arrive every week and they drive a late model SUV that I can’t even afford.

The solution might be to stop paying people unemployment benefits and tell them to take one of those jobs the illegal aliens are doing. 

Those jobs might not pay enough to support the average American lifestyle but they would put food on the table.

Discover Another Opinion about China’s Trade Surplus

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, American culture, China, Chinese Culture, economy, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty – Part 2/4

November 26, 2010

Emperor Hongwu wanted to stabilize the country and strengthen Confucian Piety in the family. To achieve this, Hongwu centralized the state’s power and used spies to watch his political rivals and supporters.

Hongwu founded the Jin Yi Wei, the secret spy agency and bodyguard of all the Ming Emperors responsible to watch public officials. Anyone caught talking about rebellion would be arrested.

The worst aspects of Chinese feudalism had Hongwu’s full support.

Before Emperor Hongwu died, he arranged for his oldest grandson to become emperor. To make sure this would happen, he had all potential enemies killed.

However, Hongwu’s grandson did not get the crown. Instead, Hongwu’s fourth son became the next emperor through drastic measures that resulted in many deaths.

Hongwu’s fourth son would become Emperor Yongle (ruled 1402 – 1424).


Mandarin with English subtitles

Emperor Yongle had been sent by his father to guard the north against the nomads and was given the title of King Yan. Due to his success at driving back the Mongols, he had the support of China’s nobility to become emperor.

As Emperor, he reversed his father’s decisions and opened China to world trade. In 1404, Yongle decided to move the capital from Nanjing to Beijing since Beijing was situated in an important strategic position between Mongolia and the plains of northern China — 20 miles from the Great Wall.

Beijing had been the capital of the Yuan and Jin (1115 – 1234) Dynasties. Though Beijing was far from the areas of China with the most population and agriculture along the Yangtze River, Emperor Yongle was still determined to move his capital north.

He wanted to move so he would have more control over China’s northern minorities such as the Mongols and the Manchu.

Before moving from Nanjing, he had Beijing rebuilt with a new palace, The Forbidden City. The materials for this construction came from all over China with most being carried on barges along the Grand Canal, which stretched more than a thousand miles from Beijing to Hangzhou in the south.

Return to Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty – Part 1

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | China, Chinese history, Confucianism, history | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China Going Vertical

November 26, 2010

About three decades ago, most of China’s cities were horizontal and the vast majority of China’s population lived in rural areas.

Today, more than 500 million live in China’s modern, vertical cities.  Even in 1999, the first time I visited Shanghai, much of the city was horizontal.  Today, Shanghai has over 4,000 high-rises with more being built all the time.

This is how China is providing homes for its huge population.

What caused me to think about this was a piece from Reuters about a recent 28-story high-rise fire in an apartment block in Shanghai that killed 42. Fifty more were taken to a nearby hospital.  Even the hospitals in Shanghai are vertical.

Since China has only been going vertical for the last three decades, this is a new type of tragedy for China.

Reading about the fire brought back memories of The Towering Inferno, a film from 1974 starring Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden and a host of other well-known actors of the time.

According to the National Fire Protection Association in the United States, between 1985 and 2002, 1,600 civilians died and over 20,000 were injured in about 385,000 high-rise building fires in the United States, excluding the MGM Grand Hotel and the Las Vegas Hilton fires in the early 80’s, and the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

The high-rise fire at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas claimed 87 lives.

With China building so many high rises there will be more fires, and fatalities may even match or exceed America’s history of high-rise fires.

What I find interesting is this—with thousands of high-rise fires in the US annually, why haven’t we heard about them?  Yet, when one fire hits a high rise in Shanghai, news of it spreads across the global immediately.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, China, environment | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty – Part 1/4

November 25, 2010

Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Yongle’s father, was born to a poor family that died of the plague and to survive he spent his youth as a Buddhist monk begging for food.

At the time, the Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty ruled China.

After becoming the leader of the rebels, Yuanzhang led the fight against the Yuan Dynasty for twelve years. When he defeated the Mongols, he took the name Emperor Hongwu (ruled 1368 – 1398)

Hongwu was frugal because of his difficult childhood, and he was known to be suspicious of others and exploded in anger at the smallest things. Punishments were harsh and sometimes ended in death.

Yuanzhang’s capital was Nanjing on the south side of the Yangtze River.

However, Emperor Hongwu promoted agriculture, and he reestablished the competitive Imperial examinations of the Confucian classics.


Mandarin with English subtitles

Defeating the Yuan Dynasty did not end the Mongol threat, and the nomadic warriors continued to raid China’s north to loot and pillage.

To deal with this threat, Emperor Hongwu divided the Imperial Ming army among his sons and ordered them to defend the northern frontier. Then the Great Wall was rebuilt, extended and strengthened.

Since Hongwu came from a background of poverty and despised the wealthy, he raised their taxes.

However, to avoid paying, many wealthy southern Chinese families fled China with their gold and silver.

In Chinese history, the Ming Dynasty under Emperor Hongwu was probably the most conservative and the least forgiving of those who were perceived to have done wrong.

Hongwu practiced a closed-door policy with the world. To avoid conflicts with Japanese pirates, he ordered the people who lived along China’s coast to move inland and he forbid any trade with foreign merchants.

Emperor Hangwu also exercised strict control over the thoughts of the common people to preserve heaven’s rule and exterminate human desire.

Discover China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | China, Chinese history | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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