Roger Cohen: A chubby Obama’s ‘unity in diversity’

Note: I do not affliate myself with any political party. I am a unbiased bystander in American politics. I am pretty sure a lot of readers will consider this a nod for Obama as president, but I make no such claims.

Caller: Hi, I love you
Carton: Thank you.
Caller: You just said it all, the last couple of…callers, I guess they don’t know that they live in America & WE’RE BEING OVERRUN.
I had just moved out of Edison because of what has happened in the past 10 years… ORIENTALS ARE ALL ALONG, THE WHOLE
COMPLETE ROUTE 27 AND INDIANS HAVE TAKEN OVER EDISON IN NORTH AND ALL OVER.
Carton: DAMN ORIENTALS AND INDIANS.
Caller: I..I moved out..36 years I’ve lived in Edison
Carton: And what was the biggest problem you had with the Orientals and the Indians?
Caller: I can’t handle them! THERE’S NO AM. PEOPLE ANYMORE.
Carton: Eh..
Caller: THEY ARE SHOVING US THE HELL OUT!
Carton: It’s like you’re a foreigner in your own country isn’t it?
Caller: You go to own store and you can’t even see American people, you don’t see our own kids, American kids, working in stores anymore…
Carton: Like the next time you see an American, you think you’ll probably hug him or high five him or something?
Caller: Oh, that’s why where I moved too, that’s all I have, thank God for now anyways.
Carton: YEAH I’M WITH YOU… SHARON, WE’RE JUST THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE, and I appreciate your call.
Caller: Keep up the good work.
Carton: All right, you got it baby… I think the quote was DAMN ORIENTALS AND INDIANS.*

* See entire transcript: http://www.80-20initiative.net/jerseyguys.pdf

In this day and age, I find it quite appalling that this kind of thing still happens in America. Apparently, the 80-20 group targeted 3 of the radio programs’ largest advertisers and asked their CEOs to stop their ads.  In 2 days, two of the three advertisers responded positively.  On the 3rd day, the “two guys” agreed to apologize on air.  In addition, the station manager agreed to take 4 other measures to prevent future reccurence.

More information on how all of this got started and the steps taken for the resolution can be found at the Cease Racism blog.

Imagine there’s no countries, It isn’t hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for, No religion too,
Imagine all the people, living life in peace…

Now I understand what the lyrics from John Lennon’s Imagine are talking about.

In 2004, the Bush: Kerry ratios were Whites (57:42); Blacks (14:86); Latinos (45:54); Jews (26:74) and Asians (34:64).    

In 2000, the Bush : Gore ratios were Whites (54:43); Blacks (9:90); Latinos (38:61); Jews (22:77) and Asians (37:62)

Source: http://www.80-20initiative.net/

In a not-to-be-taken-seriously-segment, here’s some political humour reported by The Register, titled “Reach out and sneer: Dem radicals speak to the Red States“. I think this letter would probably not be well received despite it’s good intentions.

On the funny side of things… According to The Register, Canada offers refuge to distraught Democrats. On the Marry An American website, (motto: “No good American will be left behind”), an initiative has been designed to give marital sanctuary to Democrats for whom the USA has become just too, well, Republican.

On the disturbing side of things… According to The Register, on the day Kerry conceded the Netscape/CNN website article displayed a picture of George W and Laura. What most people didn’t know was that the name of the image file was “a–hole.jpg”! Well, needless to say, the employee responsible for that act of stupidness was fired for their actions.  

On the somewhat serious side… According to The Register, they explain how organized religion, not Net religion, won it for Bush.

One thing I have noticed with the majority of Americans is that image is everything. The reason Gore lost the last election to Bush was that he did not seem like the average American. He seemed to speak down on people. Kind of like, I am so much smarter than everyone. Bush seemed so sincere and simple minded that he appealed to the more simple folk. It seems that a good portion of Americans are not well informed when it comes to politics and need the media and baby-kissing to sway their vote. Unfortunately, I see that same trend happening in this election.  I’m wondering if image was not a factor in the polls, how close would this race really be?

His adminstration has been largely anti-environmentalist. Just look at how Bush pulled the United States out of the Kyoto Protocol. He has largely ignored minorities in America. Even the U.S. Comission on Civil Rights has assailed the Bush administration’s record on civil rights. Asian Americans should be afraid of internment camps should the US ever go to war with N. Korea according to the 80-20 Initiative. Kerry & Edwards condemned in writing Congressman Howard Coble, Chairman of House Subcommittee on Homeland Security who publicly justified on 2/3/2003 WWII internment of Japanese Americans. Bush & Cheney were SILENT, in the face of a huge protest from every component of the Asian American community. The Patriot Act, signed by Bush, has given the US government dictator-like powers over the American people. Is America becoming the new Hitler-led Germany? Who knows, but the environment suggests it. We must learn from history or history will repeat itself.

Make an informed vote. Do not vote solely with your religious beliefs and looks alone. If you did, you’d probably have the tendency to vote for Bush. But you guys are smarter than that, right?

As nihilistic as it may be, al-Qaeda, from a business point of view, is a major success: three years after September 11, it is a global brand and a global movement. The Middle East, in this scenario, is just a regional base station. This global brand does not have much to do with Islam. But it has everything to do with the globalization of anti-imperialism. And the empire, whatever its definition, has its center in Washington. Bin Laden is laughing: Bush’s crusade has legitimized an obscure sect as a worldwide symbol of political revolt. How could bin Laden not vote for Bush?

Reference: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FI11Ak03.html

Reference: http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/13/news/economy/election_taxes.reut/  

Offshoring to me is an ethical issue buried inside an economical issue. I believe that offshoring for the purpose of replacing current workers for cheaper workers is an unethical practice. I’ve taken business law classes and the class discussed this issue in depth. Although from an macro-economical point of view, offshoring has a positive effect for the global economy, the micro-economics view is definitely undesireable for the near term. As far as future benefits, I am a little pessemistic that it will achieve what the pro-offshoring people are saying. It may benefit the world economy only if all nations are at the same socio-economic level. In reality, I believe that it will end up bringing the standard of living down a few notches for all countries that engage in this practice. I like to think of it as a game of snakes and ladders. We offshore to India. They benefit and climb up the socio-economic ladder. The US immediately lands on a snake and goes down a few spots in the socio-economic ladder. Eventually, India catches up to the US and the cost to do business in their country gets too expensive and they offshore back to the US (which coincidentally has become a cheaper source of labor). We then climb back up, but not as high as we were before. They climb down a few notches and the spiral trend continues. Unless I am forgetting to consider other important factors, this trend just seems unhealthy. – Entire thread

The other point that I want to make is… looking to other countries for workers with skillsets that you cannot find in your own country is perfectly valid. However, replacing an entire workforce skillset that you already have in your country to another country’s workforce who is willing to work for 10 times less, seems unethical. Nevermind the scope of country to country. If this practice was done within this country, it would probably violate anti-trust laws.