Recognizing Good Parenting — Part 2/8

April 26, 2011

To discover how far the average parent in the US has gone to pamper the average child, the March 2011 Bulletin for AARP provided more disturbing statistics.

In Pampering Our Kids, AARP said, “When boomers finally became parents, they wanted nothing but the best for the little ones, driving sales for infants, toddlers and preschoolers to more than 17 billion a year.”

In addition, Money Management Works said, “Teen spending is playing a bigger and bigger role in the U.S. economy. Teenagers have money and they are spending it.… Despite the recession, 75% of teens are receiving the same or more spending money this year than last year.

“Clothing accounts for the biggest chunk of spending by teens, at 34%. Entertainment places second, at 22%, and food is third, at 16%.

“In a 2007 article by marketingvox, according to Packaged Facts, teen spending was $189.7 billion in 2006 and will be $208.7 billion by 2011. This is despite a 3% decline in the 12-17-year-old population over the same time period.”

Studies and statistics show that 80% of American parents (way above average) never attend a parent-teacher conference during the time their child is in kindergarten through twelfth grade (public schools).

This change in parenting also resulted in statistics describing today’s average American child and teen spending about 10 hours daily having fun watching TV, playing video games, social networking on Facebook, hanging out with other teens at the mall, or sending endless text messages to friends.

Politeness among the average American child and teen was out and rudeness was in. The old adage of the child “to be seen and not heard” was as good as dead for the average parent.

However, Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, says, “‘Seen but not heard’ is not the best model for parenting children. On the other hand, it is infinitely superior to the abdication of adult authority that marks the current age.”

To be continued on April 27, 2011 in Recognizing Good Parenting – Part 3 or return to 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.

This post first appeared on March 20, 2011, at Crazy Normal, a blog about education, parenting and coming of age

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Recognizing Good Parenting — Part 1/8

April 25, 2011

In the 1960s, Political Correctness in partnership with the unproven theory of soft, obsessive self-esteem driven parents rewrote the rulebook for parenting in America resulting today in the “average” American parent that talks to his or her child less than five minutes a day.

Out went the soap that was once used to wash the mouths of vulgar children and teens leading today to the common use of the “F” word in almost every spoken sentence.

In addition, spanking (corporal punishment) was all but outlawed and identified as child abuse by many.

However, Religious Tolerance says, “Corporal punishment is strongly recommended in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament).

Most of the biblical quotations advocating corporal punishment of children appear in the book of Proverbs.

“The phrase “spare the rod and spoil the child” is often incorrectly attributed to the Christian Bible. It does not appear there. It was first written in a poem by Samuel Butler in 1664.”


This video shows an example of the wrong way then the right way to spank a child.

Instead, Proverbs 13:24 says, “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes (diligently).”

Proverbs 19:18 says, “Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.”

Proverbs 22:15 says, “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.”

Proverbs 23:13 says, “Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.”

Proverbs 23:14 says, “Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell (Shoel).”

Proverbs 29:15 says, “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself brengeth his mother to shame.”

The Old Testament was the oldest guide of parenting in the Western world used for several thousand years until the 1960s.

To be continued on April 26, 2011 in Recognizing Good Parenting – Part 2

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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.

This post first appeared on March 19, 2011, at Crazy Normal, a blog about education, parenting and coming of age.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Bald Eagle Capitalism

April 24, 2011


The Economist’s cover for the March 12, 2011 issue of what the British call a newspaper disguised as a magazine had a cover with Bamboo Capitalism splashed in big print over a picture of a bamboo forest with people riding red butterflies.

The Economist says, “China’s success owes more to its entrepreneurs than its bureaucrats.”

 True, but The Economist also says China’s economic success has often been vaguely attributed to “capitalism with Chinese characteristics”… taken to mean, “Bureaucrats with heavy, visible hands have worked much of the magic.”

Hmm, I never saw it that way. I don’t think the Party in Beijing sees it that way either or cares what anyone in the West thinks.

Although The Economist goes on to point out that government bureaucrats have less to do with China’s success than most think, it is a fact that government intervention in China’s economy helped China survive the 2008 global financial crises caused by America’s obese, debt ridden, diabetic, cancerous capitalist economy, which I have termed Bald Eagle Capitalism.

Bamboo Capitalism is a good term to identify China’s “capitalism with Chinese characteristics”.  In China, bamboo is considered a symbol of luck. It is flexible. People may eat part of it. It stays green most of the time. It is used in construction, to cook food, make floors, furniture, etc. In ancient times, warriors used bamboo as armor.

The flexible way Chinese entrepreneurs are allowed to do business is the primary reason for China’s economic success, but the central government’s control over property values and banking also deserves credit — an area the US government turned a blind eye to, which led to the 2008 global financial crises and about 64 trillion dollars in global losses along with tens of millions of lost jobs around the world.

The documentary Inside Job revealed the infamous Wall Street architects of the 2008 global financial crises and how they are still in charge at the same jobs where they caused the crash in the first place.

If these same men and women had lived in China, China’s bureaucrats may have quickly executed them so the same crises might not happen again as soon as it may repeat in the West.

In fact, Bald Eagle Capitalism is a fit term to describe the US economic system.

The Bald Eagle is not only the national bird, it is a bird of prey and although it will eat fresh fish, its primary source of food is from carrion, which vultures (a term to describe the people behind the 2008 global financial crises) feed on too.

The Bald Eagle’s diet is opportunistic and varied. The Bald Eagle will also eat the garbage from campsites, picnics and dumps.

Bald Eagles are an endangered species, as is the American economy.

Discover how High-Tech Entrepreneurs Thrive in China

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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, business, capitalism, China, economy | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Changing History through Theft

April 23, 2011

When I typed “China intellectual property theft” into Google, there were about 1.5 million hits.

Innovators Network, the first hit, said, “China is known in some circles as a bastion of rampant product piracy and intellectual property theft…”

The second hit was from Canada Free Press, which published a piece on Foreign Companies Concerned Over Intellectual Property Theft in China.

When did this cycle of theft begin?

You may be surprised to learn that the British Empire started this cycle of theft in the 19th century.

In the 18th century, China was the most advanced nation on the planet. In 1793, China’s Qianlong Emperor sent a letter to King George III of Britain. The emperor made it known that, “As your Ambassador can see for himself, we possess all things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country’s manufactures.”

Then the Industrial Revolution started in England but wasn’t felt until the 1830s or 1840s.  After almost two thousand years, the West had an advantage and used it.

For All the Tea in China: How England stole the World’s Favorite Drink and Changed History, a March book buyers’ pick for Costco, reveals one of the steps the British took to change the balance of global power.

The author, Sarah Rose, tells the story of how, before 1848, China was the only country that knew how to grow and make tea. The British sent botanist Robert Fortune deep within China to steal plants to grow on British plantations in India.

In addition, by the 1830s, the English had become the major drug-trafficking criminal organization in the world; very few drug cartels of the twentieth century can even touch the England of the early nineteenth century in sheer size of criminality.

By the 1840s, the British and French fleets sailed into China’s rivers and destroyed its fleets forcing China to bend to the will of the West. Besides Western opium trade and the theft of China’s tea, Britain and France forced China’s emperor to allow Christian missionaries free access to Chinese everywhere.

Today, with China’s rise as a major economic and military power, it seems that theft may be changing history again but this time the wind blows from the East to the West.

However, in an attempt to keep the power, Europe and America came up with a new set of rules making the kind of theft they used in the 19th century wrong.

Discover The Opium Wars or the magic of Puer Tea

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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.

4 Comments | capitalism, China, Chinese history, Christianity, crime, economy, history, religion | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Tibet’s Murky “Western” Cloud

April 22, 2011


Jonolan is an anonymous Blogger who writes opinions at Reflections from a Murky Pond.

The name of Jonolan’s Blog is appropriate because his knowledge of Tibet and China is often “Murky”. However, that is not unusual since most people outside China are ignorant of the facts.

One of many definitions for “Murky” reads, “Hard to see through, as a fog or mist; Gloomy, dark, dim; Obscure, indistinct, cloudy; Dishonest, shady.”

“Jonolan’s political leanings are far to the Right on some issues and equally far to the Left on others. In areas of foreign policy, he favors isolationism in the vein of walk softly but carry a big stick. On social issues he favors a more liberal view that follows the guidelines of Do what thou wilt shall be the whole Law and An it harm none, do as thou wilt.”  Source: About Page of Reflections from a Murky Pond


Listen to the Facts — not Popular Myths

In response to one of my posts, Border Crossing and the Blood on Our Hands, Jonolan wrote, “Again I’m forced to point out the difference in situations. Tibet is a conquered / occupied territory. Its people are not allowed the same freedoms, such as they are, that are allowed the Hans. Do you really believe that the Chinese didn’t murder Tibetans trying to reunite with their government-in-exile? Don’t get me wrong. China won that war and I accept the restrictions placed upon conquered peoples until their culture can be destroyed and their population assimilated. The world-at-large doesn’t though.”

As usual, my “reply” was too long. I can’t help it. I’m more of a novelist than a Blogger.

Since I’ve already covered the Tibet topic in depth, I built a menu for “The Tibet Issue” and placed every post I’ve written of Tibet in that menu on the home page for iLook China.

Anyone interested to learn the facts of Tibet, may visit the Home Page, scroll down and  hopefully discover enough to blow away the cloud from a “murky pond” that obscures this issue from “the world-at-large”.

Just because Hollywood types such as Richard Gere, considered His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s most high-profile disciple, parrots the words of the Dalai Lama, that does not mean those words are the truth.

Instead, those words are the myths people want to believe.

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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.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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