To Vote or not to Vote for Hillary
I wonder if Hillary is going to ride the wave of Bhutto’s martyrdom to victory? Recently, just to name a few countries: Germany, Finland, Jamaica, Chile elected for the first time female heads of government/state. The U.S. is long overdue! Heck, if traditional patriarchal countries like Israel, Pakistan and India can do it why can’t the great U.S. of A? Unfortunately, my enthusiasm is dampened at the preceding possibility because I would be celebrating the first female U.S. president in the form of Hillary. Eleanor Roosevelt where art thou?
Not Voting for Hillary…so Who to Vote for?
In his latest article, Salon Magazine’s Glenn Greenwald outed Michael Bloomberg as a closeted neoconservative like his comrade, Senator Lieberman. Like Senator Lieberman, Mayor Bloomberg is a competent elected leader and a person of good character (with an asterisk). Unfortunately to quote Ecclesiastes 10:1 (King James Version): “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly in him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.” In other words, the Iraqi War is the central issue for me and the progressive blogosphere. Politicians who embraced the neoconservative ideology (war crimes and all) and fanatically support the Iraqi War (damned international and moral laws) cannot earn my vote.
On the other hand, I admire Congressman Ron Paul on the Republican side and Senator John Edwards on the Democratic side. Respectively, I don’t agree with their platform in its entirety. However, I am bowled over by their position on the Iraqi War. In my mind, Senator Obama is still intriguing but the jury is still out on him.
It’s a pity, I am a fan of Bloomberg’s governance and contemplated to vote for his independent run for the Whitehouse; but to vote for a neoconservative today is to vote for a war criminal tomorrow.
Dining with His Royal Majesty
Last Friday, I was invited to a ‘networking’ dinner at Tao Restaurant (off Madison Avenue, NYC). The organizer was a Swedish national (a former Linguistics classmate at Q.C.) who works in Beijing and is in NYC to organize for the 2008 Olympics. We were in a group of seven. Our dinner discussion was dominated by the Iraqi War; Iraqi War; Iraqi War; business; politics; Ph.D. programs (I’m considering…); my 1996 Olympics experience (via a German company I was working with in ATL); fitness; new technology; the Kobe steak on the menu, and Thai royalty.
Did he say Thai royalty?
Yep, I was taken aback at the fanaticism of two of our dinner guests during our discussion about Thai royalty. The two dinner guests were Thai women – highly intelligent; progressive; accomplished, and cosmopolitan – one is a Las Vegas restaurateur (a Culinary Institute of America graduate) and the other is a KPMG International manager/accountant (Harvard University graduate). I was intrigued by their reaction and body language to the topic of discussion. It is similar to a reaction someone would receive…debating evolutionary theory while dining with scientists (paternal line is Evangelical/Pentecostal), or debating the Holocaust while dining with Zionists (maternal line is Sephardic Orthodox Jew), or debating the Bell Curve with eminent Black scholars (I’m black and I’m proud J).
Here is an excerpt:
Thai accountant: “the king has done a lot for our country. He modernized a poor and a wretched country.”
Thai restaurateur: “In my Las Vegas restaurant, I placed a picture of our King in a prominent and conspicuous place.”
Dinner guest: “Do Thais pray to the king and think he’s a deified ruler like some ancient cultures?”
Thai accountant: “Yes, a long pause no…we pray for him. We are Buddhists after all.”
Karl: After discussing the recent coup d’état by the military; elections in which the deposed billionaire prime minister’s party was successful, and the king’s involvement” Isn’t there a Muslim/Malay resurgence in the south?”
Thai restaurateur: “Not really, the king has presided over a stable government. Historically, Thailand is very peaceful. It is the only country, in Southeast Asia, not to be colonized by a European power. It was an ally of Japan pre-1946 and an ally of the U.S. since 1946. As a matter fact, the king was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts where his father was studying medicine at Harvard University.”
Karl: “Speaking of Japan, the reverence for your king reminds me of the Japanese reverence for the Emperor of Japan before their defeat in World War II where his deification was stripped by the U.S. sponsored post-war constitution.”
Dinner guest: “Don’t you have strict lese majeste laws laws against criticizing a king or a queen?”
Thai accountant: “Yes, foreigners/tourists are prosecuted under the law, too. Don’t forget, Holland has lese majeste laws although they are not zealously enforced….”
Dinner guest: “Despite the law, Thais genuinely love the king and thinks he cannot do any wrong.”
Thais hold their royal family in great reverence. Few visitors from the West can comprehend the relationship between the Thai people and their revered and beloved King.
