Where do you think you are?

Re: (DSM02717) follow-up

2011-02-19T23:18:00.001-08:00

Dear Walt,

Thank you for your effort. I'll probably make some calls to the places listed on the asiatravel website and to the homepage of The Valley Inn. Yes, I just need a refrigerator to keep food cold. Besides, I'm used to the quality of food in Tokyo. I've been to Saipan before. The restaurant food there is not so good. And, eating warm food in hot weather makes me want to puke. Oh, maybe that's just a flashback of my 3 months in India last year at budget hotels.I went there for some reason, but the finer points of the rationale behind that decision escape me now. I'm a bit worried because I started to have fond memories of Jodhpur. Which is actually a pretty nice place, especially when compared to New Delhi, Jaipur, or Bangalore, the other 3 places where I paused for several weeks.

Yes, they define 'budget' there. I spent a sleepless night at an oozing hovel in Barmer, Rajasthan (no, you won't find Barmer in any travel guide and there are good reasons for that), and a consecutive sleepless night on the platform of the Jodhpur train station, They charge 3 rupees for sleeping on the platform. There were some nice, young families and kindly elderly people with whom I passed the time. It's their home. The train platform in Jodhpur beat the hell out of the repulsive boudoir in Barmer. So, 'roughing' it in Saipan would be a breeze.

Anyway, I have a refundable ticket. Maybe I'll fly down to Okinawa and hang around there for a month. It seems like the proprietors of accommodations in Saipan would be a bit more consistent with the information about hotel rates on websites. A night for $56 is ridiculous for someone who requests a month-long stay. Has the occupancy rate of Saipan hotels reached its maximum? I don't think so. The Hotel Koresco advertises a $30 a night stay. The Valley Inn has a $550 plan for a month stay. Or, they say they do anyway. There's some place called the Stanford Hotel that lists a $29 a night rate. The $56 a night (I assume you're adding the 10% tax in with that figure, right?) would pay for the exclusive luxury of the Century Hotel, a Tan Company property, I believe. Don't worry. I'm not a 'troublemaker.' I just want to escape the late winter weather in Tokyo.

Besides, I want to be as far away from Garapan as possible, without being at the Hotel Nikko. In other words, I want to be in San Vicente (Tuturam). or San Antonio (Afetna), or Chalan Kanoa, or even Susupe. But that's pretty much the limit of how far north I'll go on the island. Unless the price is right, or course. Why can't I find a website for Larry Asuncion's place? It looks much better than the places I stayed in India. Of course I'm sure it would cost 2 or 3 times as much, but that's what I'm looking for.

Some people call it slumming, but I call it visualizing a challenge and then mastering it. It builds character and intestinal infections, I mean fortitude. The CC Apartments are another good example of the kind of establishment I have in mind. You know, sticky carpets, crusty couches, and no air conditioning. I'll bet they've got running water though, which is more than what I had in Rajasthan. But only nitwits would expect a steady supply of water out of a tap in the desert. On Saipan, I suppose the water runs, even if it's not entirely potable.

Such a shame Larry's place and the CC Apt. don't have websites. And I thought that perhaps the same people who design the flagrantly misleading websites for hotels in India have branched out and made their way to Saipan, virtually speaking. So, are they the ones behind the inconsistency between the rates I got from the Internet and the $56 a night that you quoted to me? In any case, I'm sure no one is responsible for such a discrepancy. These things happen.

I retired last year at the age of 49 from a career in higher education. No, the pay from that didn't provide me with the privilege of retirement. I'm just on a lengthy respite after 20 years of service to the enterprise of higher learning. If I wanted to, I could stay at a mid-range hotel, thanks to the generosity of the ex-wife, the director of marketing for Intel Asia Pacific. The only problem is, I hate being around the people who stay at mid-range hotels. They are nearly as bad as the people who stay at the 5-star luxury resorts. Of course, that's a gross generalization and hardly fair, espcially since I actually had a good time at the Hyatt Regency a few years back, but of course I wasn't paying . . .

My tastes in accommodation are spartan. I don't sleep in beds. I don't watch teevee. I can live without Internet access, as I did in India for much of the stay because the Internet infrastructure for 98% of the population is non-existent. Which isn't such a great problem for about a third of them because they are illiterate. One third of the population in India neither reads nor writes. They talk on keitai, or cell phones, or mobile phones. Or, they just shout really loud. But they don't read and they don't write. And why should they? It's not going to help them join the largest national club of billionaires in the world. So, why bother? Just turn on the teevee and see if Ms. Busa is wearing a gossamer gown on the gossip fest again. If someone wants or needs something, they can call.

Which is what I suppose I'll have to do pretty soon if I'm going to fly to Saipan. I've sent 2 emails to the Valley Inn Hotel, but have yet to receive a reply. Perhaps, the reservation staff has the weekend off. Again, thanks for the assistance, but $56 a night for one month is not what I had in mind. That's more than what I used to pay for rent in a furnished apartmentin Tokyo, which is my permanent home (I'm a permanent resident here, no visa) and where i've lived for the past 14 years. I live with my girlfriend and she takes care of me, but she can't control the weather. And so I must embark for a warmer and drier climate for a month. Or maybe, I'll just hang around the hacienda and suffer through the meteorological misery that March brings to Japan.

But probably the biggest mistake here is that you're under the mistaken impression that I want to stay at a place where other Westerners are staying, if there are any. I DO NOT WANT TO BE AROUND WHITE PEOPLE. They make me nervous. I haven't had a Western friend in over 15 years and have no plans to make any new ones any time soon. You see, I escaped from America, too. We can't choose where we were born, but some of us do have have options regarding where we live during our adult lives. And some of us have reasons for doing so that include an aversion to the inhabitants of the society from which we've devolved.

Now, whether Asian people want to be around me, or not, shouldn't be a problem because I stay pretty scarce. I do no activities except walk, shop at the supermarket, and swim in the ocean. Other than that, I'm in the room with the door closed and bolt-locked, quietly reading and writing. They won't even notice me after a day or so. I'm naturally quiet, reserved, and polite. I've fit into Japanese society better than I ever fit into american society. I make no demands from the staff and expect very little in return, although I am a generous tipper. I remember what it was like years ago to have a lousy job that pays very little. My humble origin didn't present too great of an obstacle for me to break free of the 'american way,' yet it did leave me with a sensitivity for those who are less fortunate in society. And to be honest, I find people who have faced, or are facing, tough times to be infinitely more interesting than people who've had better luck. I don't know why. Maybe I relate to them more easily.

One more thing, I noticed that the administration at NMC is having trouble with the WASC again. Tsk, tsk. Maybe in exchange for a dorm room I should offer my expertise to Dr. Cabrera in dealing with those West Coast academic types. I can speak their language. They want to make sure that a professional-caliber board of educational leaders are producing transparent and visionary policies that will maximize the effectiveness of the PROA so as to generate positive results in the CACP, thus creating a dynamically pro-active learning community. Can you feel the synergy? I sure can.

OK, thanks again for your help. I'm sure you are doing the best that you can. Take care and don't forget to write, especially if you happen to come across a last-minute deal at the Valley Inn, the Hotel Koresco or the Stanford Hotel, or any other place that offers a reasonable MONTHLY rate.

Sincerely,

Doug Eaves

On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 11:21 AM, Walt Goodridge <walt@destinationsaipan.com> wrote:

hey Doug,

According to Rizza at the budget hotel (56/night):

"Yes , there's a small refrigerator inside each room, but cooking is not allowed anytime. We provide a microwave in every floor for them to reheat food."

hope this helps

Walt

February/19/2011 17:49:18
Thank you for your request. A record of your form is provided below.

Someone will contact you shortly.

Meanwhile, here are 3 things you can do while you wait:
1. Order a copy of the book, Jamaican on Saipan! at http://www.jamaicanonsaipan.com

2. Visit SaipanLiving.com for information about the island: http://www.saipanliving.com

2. Check out the activities you can enjoy on your Discover Saipan vacation at: http://www.destinationsaipan.com/_en/activities.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SUBMISSION RECORD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is a record of the information you submitted:

Please review the information you provided and email
us with any corrections or additions.

reservations

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CLIENT INFORMATION:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IMPORTANT: Your DSM Customer id number is: DSM02717
Please make note of it and use it for any future purchasesNAME: Thomas Eaves
EMAIL: doug.eaves@gmail.com
STATUS:choose
AGE RANGE: choose
GENDER: choose

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PASSPORT/VISA INFORMATION:
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Citizen of: US

Coming From: JP

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TRAVEL INFORMATION/ITINERARY:
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BOOKED FLIGHT? YES

Departure Date from origin city (Check-in): 3/6/11
Preferred time: 01A
End date of trip (Check-out):4/5/11
Preferred time: 06A
DAYS/LENGTH OF STAY: 0

CLASS:
Class: Y
Y=economy, C=business, F=first class

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TRAVELERS:
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Adults: 1
Children: 0
Infants: 0

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PURPOSE OF TRIP:
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VACATION
RETIREMENT

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ACCOMMODATIONS
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Budget Hotel
Apartment
need a refrigerator, dishes, utensils for 1

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ACTIVITIES
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TRANSPORTATION
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CONVENIENCES
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MORE!
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To find out more about Saipan, visit
<a href="http://www.bestofsaipan.com">www.bestofsaipan.com</a>

To learn about a special tour with author and DSM Founder Walt Goodridge, visit
<a href="http://www.discoversaipan.com">www.discoversaipan.com</a>

------------------------------------------------------

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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responses to 'i love that i left'

2011-02-18T21:02:00.001-08:00

RE: The Real 'Best Places to Retire'

doug.eaves I enjoyed reading your response.
shermanroeder@yahoo.com

shermanroeder

05/10/2010 02:58 PM

RE: The Real 'Best Places to Retire'

To: doug.eaves, I very much enjoyed reading your response to bigskies. I also share your views. Best wishes on your retirement. shermanroeder@yahoo.com

shermanroeder

05/10/2010 03:01 PM

Best Places to Retire

To: doug.eaves

Mr. Eaves, like Mr. Roeder, I agree with most of your
views; and appreciate the fact that there are Americans who
have had the time and ability to become truly educated.
You have much to offer the world, so I am saddened to hear
the pain and anger in your tone. I wonder about the details
of your story ... it would make a very good read.
Additionally, a blog as to the experiences you encounter in
India would be well received by some of us here. I am one
who will stay put (in NC) due to lack of means for
alternatives, and love to hear about the world out there.

AnitaNC

Growup

Hey Doug.eves leave the lady (Bigskies) alone, and quit throwing around your racist/bigot attacks. Your painting of Marines on Okinawa as all murderers and rapists is in the best traditions of communist propaganda. Save it all for someone who cares about your liberal nonsense. Your infantile post has got to be the most self-absorbed, holier-than-thow America hating blather I have heard in a long time. Congratulations. I'm sure you being a liberal you would like us all to go to the Pol Pot re-education centers you mentioned so we could be as "enlightened" as you. Enjoy India. Hope you find enough young boys to keep you happy. Don't come back here - ever, loser.

growup

05/19/2010 01:09 AM

RE: The Real 'Best Places to Retire'

Hey @ Growup, I'm too busy keeping in touch with my wife and mistress in Tokyo to entertain an amorous relationship here in India. Besides, I don't get off on same sex intimacies. But since you brought it up, maybe you should check out your own latent homosexuality, since that could be the reason why you replied to my comment with such vitriol. I've lived overseas for 13 years and know what it is like to be a resident in a country other than the usa. Bigskies' six months in some place are a long vacation. She knows nothing about living in a foreign country. As mentioned, her ignorance about the cultures of the places she visited would prevent her from ever understanding those places where 'suspicious' activities are occurring on street corners. As for my racism and bigotry, well, you don't even understand the concept of racism since I have no dominanation over others, meaning that I can't have a racist attitude toward them. As for the bigotry, well, you go me there. Thirty seven years being surrounded by stupid americans like you instilled that unseemly characteristic in me. I'm working on it. By the way, I live in Japan and India, and visit family in the usa. But don't worry, I won't be a resident again of the usa in this lifetime. If I'm really bad though, I may come back in the next life as a person like you. To me, that would be hell.

doug.eaves

05/29/2010 02:45 AM

To AnitaNC, please forgive me for the anger and derogatory language I wrote in the post in reply to bigskies. After 4 years of hearing daily complaints from my South Asian students about the racism they faced in Japan and remembering all the injustices and dehumanizing treatment that my African American friends in the usa faced, my passion about the matter sought an outlet. Bigskies touched a nerve, shall we say.

As I've found over the years, my calm objective scholarly writing is easily dismissed as the musings of a professor in some dusty old office who sits around and reads arcane books about the structural inequality in mature capitalist societies. In others words, I can put people to sleep when I write like that. So, to get attention I let my feelings guide my writing rather than my reason. Of course, those feelings have been shaped by my experiences Howeve, those experiences have been objectively analyzed and evaluated in a professional manner, the basis for that being 9 years in graduate school studying sociology. But tell me the last time you replied to a comment by a tenured sociologist. You haven't, would be my guess, because the issues they tend to write about are so specialized that only one with a vast amount of background knowledge about the topic could even comprehend what the author was writing. And that's provided you could stay awake while reading it.

Just the same, I apologize if you were offended by the anger in my comment. I realize that such provocative language ultimately does little good to improve the many injustices in this world. So, maybe after a few months in the land of the Mahatma, Siddhartha, and Mahavira, I'll calm down a little bit and try to replace some of that anger with constructive criticism. That's what I hope anyway. And yes, I am keeping a journal of my travels, which will take me back to Japan in about 3 months to visit the mistress and then to the usa, probably for my last visit there to visit my 85 year old mother and my older brother, neither of whose health is very good. After that back to Japan for a while and then to Morocco or Tunisia. So, If you wish I'll keep you updated from time to time on how the people live in the places I visit, since I don't go where the tourists go. I go where the people live and I stay in their neighborhoods and I get to know them. On an individual basis, people have been very nice to me in Japan, the Republic of Korea, China, Vietnam, and India. I even meet very kind and friendly people during my infrequent travels to the usa. Anyway, thanks again for your comment and I'll keep in mind the negative impression my anger can create. It's really counter-productive to the purpose of my writing. I appreciate your wisdom, intelligence, and constructive criticism very much. take care. Kindly yours, doug eaves

doug.eaves

To Doug Eaves: Now that you've calmed down a bit, you actually sound like a likeable, intelligent human being. However, the unrestrained rant revealed that, in some ways, you may be far more ignorant than bigskies whom you were attacking. For example, implying that Italians care primarily about outward appearances shows a real lack of understanding about their culture. I lived there for 19 years, and I observed that all over the country people mostly care for other people -- their families, friends, and strangers (who quickly become new friends). They use the term "bella figura" which may sound like an obsession with cutting a beautiful figure. But it actually means how one behaves and treats other people. It is a shame that you have disconnected from your ethnic background, because if you hadn't, that rant probably wouldn't have happened. It presents you as having a "brutta figura," one which leaves an ugly feeling or aura about you. This may not be fair to you, but you did it to yourself!
AND TO GROWUP: Too bad you think Doug Eaves is a liberal or a communist. He said nothing that would indicate that he is either of those things. It would be really helpful if right-wingers would understand what a liberal (or even a communist) is, because then they would appear to be much more informed and politically savvy by not using those labels on people who don't truly represent either of those philosophies.
And Doug....
By the way, in my 19 years in Italy, the only times I had any problems (attempted rape, attempted robbery, and an actual theft) were all committed by middle eastern men (in Milan and Perugia). But I also had good friends in Italy who were muslim/arab/africans and black africans. I am not prejudiced, but I can understand why one of my Italian friends (in Italy) said that Italians don't like the "muselmani," because they perceive them as a threat to their culture. Other of my friends there have the opposite attitude. It's a mixed bag which is still evolving. I personally feel that if you immigrate to another country, you should be willing to embrace its culture, language, values, and lifestyles. If not, you are just there to exploit them for your own ends. I didn't set foot in Italy (even as a tourist) until I learned the italian language. BUT MAYBE THIS IS THE REAL KEY TO DECIDING WHERE TO RETIRE: Live someplace where you can really embrace the culture, whether it is France, Japan, India, Italy, Texas, Saudi Arabia or Maine. Don't base your decision on the weather. You should be someplace that you really feel is home.

Notte

@ Notte, Thank you very much for the constructive criticism. Your perceptions are on the mark. My self-loathing often interferes with analytical observations so they get twisted into a bigoted, anti-European/American rant. I generally write to please myself and my tastes. My prejudices and ignorances are expressed in a frenzy of hyperbolic verbosity. It can make for annoying reading I'm sure.

Occasionally, I intentionally make a point that is an obviuosly ignorant stereotype to elicit intelligent comments such as yours. This helps me to correct the pathetic misperceptions of which I'm often guilty, but not always aware. So if I toss one out that I know is just wrong, perhaps this will help me to locate other patterns of flaws in my thinking and writing that have been detected by a perceptive and generous person, such as yourself. You corrected my mistakes and I'm very grateful to you for that. This is how I learn, through intelligent constructive criticism such as yours.

As a side note, my maternal grandmother from Ancona, Italy had never seen an African (or African-American) until she arrived with her family in the usa about 100 years ago. She had no prejudices regarding people of that race, since they were not part of her reality until arriving in the usa. As a matter of fact, her first impression of African Americans was highly favorable, and it remained that way throughout her life in Memphis, Tennessee where they settled. An African American man helped her family escape in the middle of the night from a farm (plantation?) in Arkansas where they were working as 'share croppers,' although they seemed to go deeper into debt each month. They escaped by wagon to Memphis, TN, thanks to that kind gentleman who undoubtedly risked his life to help them.

However, my mother told me that my maternal grandmother had a strong bias Sicilians. I don't know why. You correctly noted that I have no sense of an Italian heritage (nor do I have a sense of an Irish heritage either, which comes from the paternal side). My hertiage is american, and again, you correctly noted that I'm not so fond of that culture, but there is little I can do to change my feelings about that. We don't choose the family or the culture or the country into which we are born. We can change our country if it displeases us. But the cultural background one acquires when growing up is inside you for a lifetime. Some can accept it and nurture it (and become patriotic stooges), while others such as myself prefer to criticize the flaws and injustices that are perceived in that social system. Since I am a product of that social system, it is logical that my writing will appear as 'brutta figura', a term which I believe accurately and succinctly characterizes me as well.

As for my ignorant comment about Italians being only concerned about surface appearances, that was meant as an exaggeration to support another point, at which I obviously failed. From the Golden Age of the Roman Empire, to the Renaissance and into the present day, Italians have made remarkable contributions to historiography, philosophy, science, medicine, architecture, engineering, literature, the fine arts (no, I don't in the least think they are only 'surface appearances'), among other areas of knowledge that bear little connection to something merely superficial. Cicero, Pliny the Elder, Gallileo, Da Vinci, and Marconi come to mind, just to name a few.

Regarding an 'Italian heritage,' I have none. My mother and her siblings were raised as americans because my grandparents told them this is america, not Italy. Ninety years ago in the usa, state-sancitoned assimilation of Southern and Eastern Europeans into the dominant (Anglophone culture) was strongly promoted by most social institutions. In 1920, approximately 10 to 15% of the American population were foreign born. The leaders of US society feared a diversity that might (a) weaken their influence over the immigrant population, (b) present a problem for american Anglo-phone manufacturers who needed to make sure their workers could understand the Protestant Work ethic.

None of my maternal grandparents' eight children learned to speak Italian, so within 2 generations in the usa, there was no knowledge of an Italian heritage that I could recognize. Part of that has to do with the fact that only 5% of the Italian immigrants to the usa settled in the Southern part of the usa, where mine did. There simply wasn't a large enough Italian community in Memphis, Tennessee 100 years ago to sustain an Italian heritage.

Please accept my apology for the ignorant and bigoted remarks that color my writing. I don't proofread or edit very often, so your term 'brutta figura' is an accurate and succinct characterization of my writing, and myself as well (I'm not much on self-analysis; I'm more concerned with surface appearances; really.) I let all of my defects and flaws come through when I write. It's not a particularly effective way to communicate, and I'm working on improving it thanks to helpful comments like yours. I greatly appreciate that you took the time to give me some valuable insight into how my writing is perceived by an intelligent reader such as your yourself. Grazie.

doug.eaves

To Doug Eaves,

I'm an American who totally agrees with you! The owners of media companies in the U.S. have an agenda and are brainwashing the American people.

I was in India last year on business. You should start a blog - we need to listen to more people like you!

Best,

robininvest1102 gmail.com

To doug.eaves
It was awesome, thanks man!

I

barkip

I personally think no one should "retire". My motto is keep on keeping on. Do good, make a difference, die with a smile on your face with a job well done. "Be" where you are. Live in peace and love. Some of your notes are deeply troubling. No wonder the world is so problematic! We should all learn to respect each other. Move through wherever you are with truth and grace.

thordargreybeard

10/03/2010 08:10 PM

RE: The Real 'Best Places to Retire'

Just a thought: Some people have too much time on their hands espousing hate and derision (doug.eves).

thordargreybeard

10/03/2010 08:17 PM

@thordargreybeard Hate and derision? I'll give you some points for derision. It's an unattractive quality to pick on smaller minds, but sometimes the best way to get a point across is to use the verbal backhand and wake those up who are blindly ensconced in their narrow little worlds. I noticed that you didn't have a similar comment for bigskies and her racist portrayal of the 'middle eastern men' who made her feel 'unsafe.' Perhaps you are afflicted with a similar kind of bigotry. Perhaps your message of tolerance and humanity only extends as far as your neighborhood. Do you think the billion or so people living on less than a dollar a day are happy and carefree, respecting others and receiving respect? Do you think that they just want to 'go with the flow' and are ready to die with smiles on their faces? Think again, Sherlock. Their world is more like Hobbes' world, that being, it's nasty, brutish, and short. 'Peace and love.' Wake up, you freak. Do you think you're in Haight-Asbury and it's 1967? If you weren't a hypocrite, you would easily see that my message is mainly about the difficulties faced by those from developing countries who attempt to live in a developed country, where they are needed but not wanted. Let's hope a majority of your co-citizens share similar ideas about working until they drop dead because it's only a matter of time until you will have 2 or 3 workers for every retiree. As for the disabled, maybe just take them out back and shoot them, huh? It seems like your benevolent platitudes extend only to those with whom you happen to agree. 'Learn to respect each other' just so they happen to agree with you, right? It's simpletons like you who perpetuate the problems in the world by refusing to face them. As far as hatred goes, you've got a misunderstanding of that word. It applies to strong feelings that are filled with negative energy. It would be remiss to asssume that I have any feelings at all for those whose ignorance clouds their perceptions. I'm just trying to neutralize the ignorance spread by those who think that the world will be fine if we just 'be' where we are. Anyway, I guess you'll be OK as you write copy for Nike commercials until senescence overcomes you. Duh, just do it. Thimk!

doug.eaves

11/05/2010 01:00 AM

living overseas, reply to a yanqui

2011-02-18T20:45:00.001-08:00

WDDALLAS is spot on! That said, however, to all of you who are suggesting moving to another country, such as Belize, Costa Rica, or Mexico - you need to think deeper than just the low cost of living. With low cost of living comes quality of life issues....

I lived in Central America for 3 years, and by the time I left - I was looking at the retirement crowd flocking to the area and shaking my head. They had no clue about how blessed they were to have been living in America, where you have rights and protections. The "Policia" are more often than not completely corrupted. You'll have to learn when to bribe to avoid JAIL, and when NOT to bribe to avoid Jail, and to know which circumstance requires which response. Did you know, for example, if you ARE jailed (and there's nothing the policia like more than to see a gringo or gringa go to jail.. it means $$$$ to them) - you better know someone in town who can bring you clothes, toiletries and FOOD, or you go without? What ARE your rights? Do you HAVE any?

And construction quality - is your "dream home" safe? Would it withstand an earthquake or hurricane?? Are there any legal guarantees if your house becomes a lemon?

What is dental care and medical care like? Is there an ambulance service?? I was never in trouble with the law while living in Central America, but I had missionary friends who went to "minister" to jailed Americans, and bring them food.. and their stories were frightening. You can be accused of just about anything! I was rejected for getting my driver's license because I was wearing a "skort" (skirt/shorts - for golfing), because it was deemed shorts, and therefore inappropriate. They would not help me.

Central America is a drug haven, which brings crime with it, and as well - you'll also see dog and animal neglect and abuse like you never have before. So prepare yourself.

Lastly, I've lived in 3 other countries on 3 continents. The only country that I felt provided extraordinary safety, adequate health care, and clean healthy living was Okinawa. However, the cost of a gallon of gas there might throw you for a loop! Not to mention it is on the "ring of fire" (earthquake fault).. typhoons hit regularly.. and there is one historical tsunami on record..so the potential for that is there as well.

Europe - absolutely breathtaking, loved the people, our home, the history, and travel opportunities... but you start missing the good ol' U.S.A. after about the first 2 years. The muslim population is growing, and bringing with it anti-western sentiments that the local governments avoid doing anything about so as not to appear "prejudice" - and thus relations between Europeans and Muslims is festering to an ugly state. I saw several incidents of suspicious behavior by groups of middle eastern men that made us feel extremely unsafe.

In my 12 years of living in 4 countries - the only country that felt close to home was the Netherlands (southern/western areas).. but the anti-western Muslim population is growing there, too. Country living in Europe, though, is superb.. but again... what are your rights? What are your health care options? Dental? Legal system??

Bottom line people - kiss the ground of America and thank God that you were blessed to be born here. While you're sitting there dreaming of some fantasy location to live out your days, remember that people from where you're thinking of going to are begging to go to America. Thank God that you have rights, protections, the best medical care in the world, and can call America home. It is NOT always greener on the other side....

bigskies

02/20/2010 06:05 AM

Love it or Leave it? I love that I left.

@ Bigskies, please leave your ignorance, prejudices, and bigotry in the US when going overseas. Comments like yours make life difficult for those of us who live overseas and constantly have to explain that the majority of americans are totally ignorant about anything that is outside of the lower 48." Just what are you implying by posting asinine comments like "the muslim population is growing, and bringing with it anti-western sentiments"? Did you talk with these Muslims about why they may have anti-western sentiments? Did you read something other than a story by a right-wing bigoted Europhile journalist or a ghost-written piece of anti-Muslim propaganda by a 'former' Muslim? And just what do you mean by "I saw several incidents of suspicious behavior by groups of middle eastern men that made us feel extremely unsafe." Were these groups of Maronite Christians from Lebanon who were standing around looking suspicious? Or, maybe it was a group of young Orthodox Jews who were standing around looking suspicious. But you mean Muslim men, don't you? What were the men doing Bigskies, talking? That certainly is suspicious isn't it? You know what they were talking about? They were saying, "It sure would be nice if the people would stop staring at us and looking like we are about to self-detonate ourselves." That's what they were saying, because my Muslim students here in Tokyo face the same kind of racism on a daily basis that you've amply demonstrated by your remarks, and which characterizes the same sort of racism shown by the Dutch Right, who happen to be in the country where you felt most 'at home.' Small wonder. Too bad you didn't get a chance to live in South Africa during the 1950s and 1960s. You would have surely felt you'd reached the land of milk and honey.

But back to your ignorant bigotry and why you shouldn't leave the usa anymore. First, if you are too stupid or too arrogant about the local customs, then you deserve what you get for being a stupid and arrogant american. Do you see Japanese businessmen pissing on the side of buildings on 52nd Street? No, but they would think nothing about pissing on a building outside of Shimbashi station here in Tokyo. Despite their racist attitudes and overt bigotry toward other Asian people, they at least understand that the 'rules' are different in New York than they are in Tokyo. And about the 'drug haven' in Central America, where do you think those drugs are going? To the 'favelas' of Mexico City and Managua where those who live on less than a dollar a day spend their time snorting 90% pure Peruvian flake all day and night? Think again, nitwit. It's all going to the usa, except for the little bit that can get up to the drug-starved Canadians who get hooked on China White instead, which unfortunately results in physical addiction and other health problems common to junkies. But the American coke-head (and that's coke, not crack, because you know what that means, right?) can go about living respectable lives until one day, there's no more money, no more family members around, and the county sheriff just nailed an eviction notice on the door because the American coke-head forgot that just because you feel like you are a god, doesn't mean that you are one. And that's a very stupid mistake to make in a country that frowns on those who don't pay their bills on time, or especially if they don't pay them at all. Anyway, that's why Central America is a 'drug haven:' it's to make sure that the market can supply enough norteamericanos with Colombia's #1 export product, so they can feel like gods as long as they can pay their bills.

But back to your disgustingly racist statements about Muslims and middle eastern men. You don't even know any Muslims, do you? What exactly do you mean by suspicious behavior? Were they speaking in their native language and acting according to the customs of their homeland? You don't know do you, because you wouldn't be able to distinguish Arabic from Farsi from Urdu. So, before you start labeling peoples' behavior suspicious, try to remember that they are not ignorant European Americans acting strangely, but are a group of men from a culture about which you know nothing. You disgust me, and it's people like you who are the reason I left the usa 13 years ago because there is no hope for you. I don't even think an advanced re-education program inspired by the late Pol Pot would help you.

Do you know why their behavior seemed 'suspicious' to you? Besides the US mass media propaganda that has brainwashed you, the men were standing close together, about 18 inches apart, rather than about 30 or 36 inches apart, because spatial distance between people in a social setting in the Middle East is half of that common to people in Europe and North America. So when you see a group of Muslim men standing around, it looks suspicious to you because they are standing so close together, which must mean they are plotting something to make you feel unsafe. The only 'unsafe' thing is your complete ignorance about their culture. Do you know why they are in the Netherlands and many other European countries, and in Japan as well? Because the young natives of the developed world decided to stop having babies a few decades ago. After all, it's more fun to f*** around and live a hedonistic life than to raise a family. Or, I think it is anyway. But the numbers back me up. There are simply not enough members of the native populations of the developed countries to do the low wage hard work jobs that need to be done. That's why the college from which I just retired has 98% of a student body that consists of international students. And maybe about a quarter of them are from Muslim countries in Asia. And you know what else? My Muslim students are the kindest, gentlest, and most thoughtful students that I've taught in a career that includes 7 years as a university instructor in the usa and 13 years as a college professor and administrator in Japan. I've taught students from every continent except Australia, easily covering at least 50 or 60 different countries. And besides white american students, I've found my Japanese students and colleagues to be the most ignorant about other cultures, although the Chinese and Korean students are not far behind. Part of the reason over here is geographical: There are only three main groups in Northeast Asia: Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. You might include the couple of million Russians who live in Vladivostok, but they don't count themselves as Asians and no one else does either. There are also some indigenous groups that were 'ethnically-cleansed' northward when those three main groups staked out their territorial homelands thousands of years ago.

It's a pretty far hike from Tokyo to Hanoi, so there's not a lot of knowledge about the Vietnamese. Some of the swinging businessmen here in Tokyo will know a little about Filipino culture because they've spent some time with some cute young Pinay working in the sex trade here, and some will have gone on a 'sex tour' to Bangkok back in the good ol' days when Japan Inc. could do no wrong. But a few got STDs and when they gave it to their wives, it kind of fell out of favor among the packages offered by travel agencies, so that meant another squandered opportunity for the insular Japanese to learn about other cultures. It's no wonder you felt comfortable and safe in Okinawa. It's basically just one big US military base. The majority of Okinawan people don't like it, but so what? The decisions are made in Tokyo. The American servicemen stationed in Japan usually just rape underage Okinawan girls or murder bar owners, neither of which are a big constituency for the heavy-weight metropolitan politicians, journalists, and fixers in Tokyo. An overweight white woman would definitely feel no threat from anyone in Japan, but you might feel a little uncomfortable about the nervous giggles you hear every now and then when you ask why everyone looks alike, or wonder why they put soy sauce on everything and not ketchup.

As for the Russians on Sakhalin Island and the Kamchatka Peninsula, no one counts them as Asian, most of all themselves. I know, I've taught a couple of them. Their heritage is European, and they make damn sure you know it, too. Why? Racism again, but this time with a Russian twist, meaning that the Russians west of the Urals are Europeans, while those east of that mountain chain are Asian, meaning they aren't 'as good' as Europeans. They have neither the sophistication nor beauty that Eurpeans possess. And what's wild is the Northeast Asian people have bought this reasoning hook, line and sinker. I look Italian, and that happens to be a popular appearance, especially since my body mass ratio is 20, I have the profile of Michelangelo's David, and I stand 6 feet tall. So, although I could easily fit into your group of 'middle eastern men' when talking with my fellaheen students and would be a suspicious character, I also have to endure the constant stares by lonely middle-aged woman and adventurous young ones. And then there are the stares of nearly-concealed resentment from short, stumpy , and round Japanese men who see me and know that they will never get the advantages that I have, simply because of my physical appearance. This place makes me sick, and I'm finally able to relax knowing that this Saturday I'll be moving from here to India. It may be huge pain, but I've endured worse in the usa I'm sure, and I know how to tie a sharp-looking turban so I shouldn't be too obvious an outsider among the masses in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Japanese culture is the only culture in the 'old world' that places more value on the superficial surface of something, or someone, than even those masters of design, the Italians, from where half of my genetic code comes. But I feel as much connection to Italians as I do to the Yanamamo in the Brazilian rain forest. In other words, I know nothing about either culture so I'm pretty hard-pressed to say why Italians are said to be so focused on external appearance. But they are famous for it, and it's certainly not because of their ability to discuss articulately in English aesthetic principles, elements of design, and their theories of what 'works' and what doesn't.

It seems I've strayed from the topic once again, which was my wish that you keep your ignorant ass in the usa so you don't go ruining things for americans like me who happen to like NOT living in the usa. So, it's no mystery why those two bright fellows wrote nearly 50 years ago, the book titled The Ugly American. No, it wasn't about physical appearances, but attitudes, attitudes just like yours that measures every other culture and country by those of the usa. Well that's fine for you, but please don't spread your ignorance in public forums because it can make life more difficult for those americans such as me, who live among the other 6.4 billion people on this planet. No one likes an ethnocentric boor, especially one who openly displays an ignorance and arrogance that many would find offensive. I certainly have, and I'm an american, too.

The racism in Japan actually works to my advantage in some ways though. My height advantage, attractively proportioned body, and Roman countenance allow me to do whatever I damn well please over here, simply because of that physical appearance. For example, it's against the law to smoke on the streets, but I smoke whenever I want and when a policeman walks by, he turns his head the other way. My students from south and southeast Asia might be doing nothing, but the racist cops can take them to the station where they have to sit all night trying to convince those racist cops that their papers aren't forged. Why? Because many of my students are from poor south and southeast Asian countries that have no opportunities for young people, just like in southwest Asia, and your 'group of middle eastern men.' The south, southeast Asian, and Chinese students are here to fill seats in colleges that have seen their domestic market cut in half in twenty years (from 8 million in 1985 to 4 million in 2005, for traditionally aged college students). This demographic group is also the one that is the main source of labor for low wage, low skill, hard work jobs in any developed economy, you know fast food, convenience stores, restaurants, night shifts in warehouses, the fun jobs that everyone should do sometime in their lives to know how much those jobs suck. So, most of my international students are getting screwed twice. They have to pay tuition, then they get student visas so they can work "28" hours per week at those lousy jobs that pay about 20 times what they would make in their countries, but it costs 21 times as much to live in Tokyo as it does in their hometowns. So, they are getting screwed.

I know because I was a young and poor american 30 years ago. I had most of my undergraduate university paid for by the government because I've always been an excellent student, but after I graduated I worked in convenience stores for 3 years and an aircraft parts factory for 4 years. Why? I had no money to buy clothes or a car, and I couldn't get any credit in Reagan's Morning in America economy because I didn't own anything because I'd never made enough money to buy anything (which suggests his Alzheimer's disease was much more advanced than what the public was told if he thought 1984 was 'morning in america': the guy didn't know if it was 1954, 1964 or 2014, he just read his lines and said, 'Is is lunchtime Mommie?') So, after 9 years of graduate school, which the government generously paid for once again although I had to teach university courses in exchange for their largesse, I got the hell out of the usa before I got screwed again, or had to deal with anymore ignorant racists like you. So, I guess it all depends on the perspective of the individual. You want to kiss the ground in the usa and I think you are kissing a pile of s***. You see a 'suspicious group of middle eastern men' and I see some young guys who are sick of being exploited at their dead-end jobs while blue-eyes stare at them everywhere they go.

You are right about one thing, and that's many of my students would love to go to the usa. And I encourage them because as much as I dislike the land of my birth and citizenship, I also know that my Southeast Asian and South Asian students would face much less racism in the usa than they do here in Japan. And if they work as hard in the usa as they do here, they have a slightly better chance of being rewarded for it, while here, they really don' t have a chance unless they open their own business. That's a sad fact about Japan. It is more racist than the usa, in its own way of course.

You're just one of the millions in the 'greatest country in the world, god bless america' that have been brainwashed by american mass media and the former executive administration of assorted thieves, idiots, and mass-murderers who wanted a permanent base in the Land of Oil so they ratcheted-up the anti-Muslim paranoia. And it worked. When my first Muslim students came to the Tokyo college where I was academic dean, principal, and professor, and from which I recently retired, I found myself being nervous for no reason. I had 3 Muslim students in my classroom, and all the sudden, certain actions or facial expressions would make me a little nervous. This didn't happen with my Chinese students or Vietnamese students, so why did it happen with my Bangladeshi students? It was simply the association of their faith with the twisted propaganda the usa mass media has used for years to demonize the Other. And it worked. But I understand these things, so I got to know those three guys really well, and they turned out to be my best students, and I still keep in touch with them 4 years after they graduated. How many Muslim people or 'middle eastern men' do you know? How many Muslims, or 'middle eastern men,' have you talked with? How many Dutch people that you knew had Muslim friends? Do you know how many Muslims there are in the world? None, none, none, I don't know, right? See, you are ignorant. So, stay in the usa where you belong. We don't want you here.

real estate flacks

2011-02-18T20:20:00.001-08:00

RE: The Real Best Places to Retire

Dear Mr. Eisenberg, thank you for the recognition that foreign locations offer many of us a superior quality of life than what is available in the usa. As you surely know, around 5 million civilian american citizens live overseas, which makes us a larger group than the populations of many states in the US. I've lived in Japan for over 13 years and was able to retire this year at the age of 49 due to advantages that many do not have. The desire to ever live in the usa again diminishes with each passing year. While I wouldn't encourage people to consider Japan as a retirement destination due to its high cost, language difficulties, and overcrowding in public transportation during rush hours, it still beats the places I lived in the usa, which include cities in the South, the Northwest, and the Northeast. And I've at least traveled through all of the other states except for those in the Southeast, so I'm pretty sure what the continental US has to offer its residents. Sure enough in fact, that I no longer file IRS returns, pay into social security, or care whether my credit rating in the usa is 800 or 0. It's fine in Japan and that's what matters to me. Besides, all of my assets are denominated in yen, and my credit cards work just fine when I travel to the US, or anywhere else for that matter.

After reading the ad from a real estate agent in
comment #12, it is hoped that 'ratings' for foreign locations for retirement are not compiled by property or insurance agents, national financial industries, or government bureaucrats (yes, they love collecting fees from visitors from rich countries), or some combination thereof. I suppose the US locations that are mentioned in the 2010 list of 'best places' are selected as fairly as such types of lists can be. But when seeking ratings information about foreign places, are there independent researchers who have the time and money to carry out such research?

I'm familiar with reliable sources that offer vital information about most countries. The Economist has cost of living comparisons with many countries based on PPP and uses NYC as the baseline, as does the Numbeo website. Their information has been somewhat useful to me in my travels. But lots of critical data for places are simply unavailable from such sources. How long does the average power outage last? When was the last time a health inspector visited a restaurant's kitchen? How do you do tell a practitioner of western medicine from one who practices aryuvedic medicine, but not waste your time being insulted by a freak who considers suffering a pleasure?

My 3 months in India suggest that it might be a little difficult to find reliable information about the suitability of some of its cities as retirement locations when taking into account some of the questions I posed above. Property and insurance agents, government officials, and bankers were the only groups who had the resources to sponsor any kind of information about the Indian cities I visited. Their biases, and the reasons for them, should be obvious to most people. The only suitable place I found in India was Jodhpur, Rajasthan. But I must admit that the 120 degree F daytime heat in late April was a bit exhausting. And it gets very hot inside very quickly when the electricity fails. However, having stayed a few weeks in Jaipur, Rajasthan and a month and a half in Bangalore, Karnataka, Jodhpur was easliy the most livable among those cities. Five days in New Delhi were a nightmare, but mainly because I was entirely unprepared for the heat and the deficiencies in the infrastructure, since that was my arrival destination after leaving Tokyo.

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend New Delhi, Jaipur, or Bangalore for a vacation, much less retirement. But Jodhpur was really nice. I could live there. And they have over 300 days of sunshine a year. Not quite the 362 days of sunshine (?!) that Los Cabos offers, but it's a reliable number anyway. My pre-travel research had inclined me to select Pune, Maharashtra, as my destination, but I changed plans at the last moment as the emails from real estate agents became increasingly aggressive. I continued to receive annoying email about the wonderful opportunities for residential investment in that city, even after I unsubscribed. I eventually had to
mark them as spam. Such a shame. They overbuilt their luxury condos and are desperate for buyers. I do not know whether they have cabinets made of alder, or not. Maybe they don't, and that's why they are having such a hard time selling them.

I have no idea what the reality of life is like in Los Cabos, but I'd sooner move to the sidewalks in New Delhi
than rely on the summary about Los Cabos in comment #12. Could the commenter have some connection to the
local real estate industry there? Are alderwood cabinets necessary for a retirement home? Is there a curfew when
they lock the gates in the golf communities? My funds are all in Japanese yen, how do Japanese banks feel about
investing in Mexican real estate? How do you find un-biased information about the quality of life in a developing country? A UN database? And when moving, would anyone only consider the 'quality of life' (an absurd concept in itself, unless you accept the notion that everyone has exactly the same values regarding what qualities in life are most important, but if you think 'quality of life' is a useful concept then you should probably contact commenter #12 because he has just what you want) in a retirement location? Besides, even seemingly objective data such as the percent of the population with "improved water source access," number of Internet providers per 1000 population, and the length of paved roads says little about the quality of that infrastructure. Americans mistaking 'quantity' for 'quality' is very humorous to many people around the world. I never fail to get a look of incredulity when telling a Japanese person the quantity of product in the notorious Big Gulp. They find it hilariously disgusting that one human being would purchase and consume a fountain soda of 48 ounces (nearly 1.5 liters, the largest size of any packaged soft drink in Japan).

The Pacific Northwest (Seattle) is frequently mentioned by people as an ideal location for living, but it was one of the worst places where I've lived in my life. It doesn't rain there, but it sprinkles and drizzles for 9 months out of the year. I didn't find the natives particularly friendly either. In my list, it ranks below Jaipur, but above Bangalore. The only information that comes close to being objective or impartial about places is that of monthly weather stats, quantity of infrastructure, current exchange rates for currencies, and whatever social, economic, and governmental data one needs to make a choice, However, that kind of data simply emphasizes how important individual tastes are in making choices about where to live. If you dislike gray drizzly skies and cars, the Pacific Northwest would not be such a wonderful place. If you're fond of those two things, it could be your paradise.

I agree that Mexico would be an excellent place to live. I've thought Monterrey is one of the most beautiful cities
in the world ever since I first saw it 35 years ago when I was 15. I hope to live in its seedy downtown for a while as I 'retire' at an inexpensive location every few months for the next few years until my money runs out. I might need a source of income when that happens, but that's years away, I hope. Until then, I'll check out Tunisia, Morocco, Mozambique, Tanzania, Peru, Bolivia, Thailand, and I'll return to Vietnam (Hanoi is a beautiful city, and the people are wonderful; there are no golf courses or gated communities in downtown Hanoi; I do not know if cabinets of alderwood can be purchased in Hanoi, or not).

In downtown Monterrey, I don't remember seeing any golf courses or gated communities, either. Gringos were
scarce as well. Those were big attractions to me. Anywhere private clubs and spas and gated golf
communnities can be listed as the main attractions seem more like an upscale penal colony than a place where
one would choose to live. On the other hand, I think I'd
rather die young than suffer the indignity of living in a home that doesn't have alderwood cabinets. What retiree in their right mind would live in a home without that necessity?

2011-02-03T04:35:00.000-08:00

Hunter S. Thompson's mother was a librarian

2010-12-09T22:03:00.001-08:00

Dear Mr. Frey,

Thank you for the effort applied to the Heitor Villa-Lobos website. It resonates with a vibrant appreciation of Brazil's greatest composer of classical music of the 20th century, and who happens to be my favorite classical composer of music, regardless of era or nationality. Well done. I couldn't help but notice in the first footnote of the biography page a request for other famous people whose parent(s) were librarians. It could be an oversight, but it seemed that a great* son of a librarian is notably absent. Of course I am referring to the late american writer, Mr. Hunter S. Thompson, whose mother was a librarian for many years in the Louisville, Kentucky public libraries.*(I'm not sure what you mean by 'great' since that term is loaded with ambiguity, but I'm assuming you mean famous, or perhaps, extremely productive member of society; as will be explained below, the people on that list would not be individuals who I would classify as great, but then I'm not collecting names for a list of great people whose parents were librarians.)

Regarding the collection you have compiled of great people so far, I'm afraid those names are unknown to me, except for Paul Allen. My own opinion about Mr. Allen is rather low since he is undeniably identified with Microsoft as one of its founders thus making him at least complicit in unlawful business practices since he was on the board of that company until November 2000. I assume as one of the founders of the company and a board member, he could have had some impact on Microsoft's penchant for illegal monopolistic business practices. If you are judging greatness by the amount of money that one has accumulated, then Mr. Allen would indeed be a likely choice for your collection of names. However, I would question your criteria for defining greatness. Maybe the other names you've collected belong to great people. but it's hard for me to make an assessment of someone's 'greatness' when that person doesn't register on my awareness. My home is in Japan, but I lived the first 37 years of my life in the usa. I've spent a couple of very pleasant vacations in Canada. It's a wonderful country.

I'm not sure about your purpose for compiling a collection of "names of great people whose parents were librarians" since you have merely stated that it will be for the use of your children. I have no idea what sort of use they might get out of such a collection, but that's really not my concern. Perhaps, it's an attempt to motivate your children to strive for greatness (thus leaving them with feelings of inadequacy throughout their lives should they fail to meet such a challenge). Or maybe you just wish to add a vicarious glow to yourself for being in the same profession as the parents of a few noted people. As stated, this is really none of my business anyway. However, you have made a public request for contributions of names to add to a list of great people whose parent(s) were librarians, and one of the usa's greatest writers of the twentieth century is omitted. Well, it seems odd to omit such a great figure as HST from such a collection of names.

Perhaps, you would classify the late Mr. Thompson, may he rest in peace, as not worthy of greatness, for what I can only assume might be attributed to his notoriety for controversy and radicalism. Even if that were the case, it would seem that a collection of names of those whose greatness was also marked by their running afoul of oppressive systems, through either their actions or words, or both, and faced persecution, jail, or death for their deeds and/or their beliefs would include the greatest names in history. One needs only mention such great people as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jesus Christ, Mohandas Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Augusto C. Sandino, Joan d'Arc, Gallileo Gallilei, Socrates, Nelson Mandela and a library full of other names who fit that description, to make the point. If these individuals do not fit your definition of greatness, then I would be at pains to guess what meaning you have attached to that elusive term.

While it would be remiss of me to put Mr. Thompson's name on the list of those people in the preceding paragraph, I would dare say that posterity will probably find him as a great voice of his generation, and one who did indeed suffer much hardship throughout his life for his beliefs. Although the only name I can identify from your list of great names compiled so far is Paul Allen, I must conclude that those other names on the list do not give me such cause for concern as the addition of Mr. Allen's name to that collection. In any case, if you have reservations about adding HST's name to the list because of what could be labeled by some as behavior lacking greatness, I would counter that Paul Allen was at the least an accessory to commercial crimes of a serious nature as he served on the board of Microsoft until November 2000, which covers the time that Microsoft's illegal business practices occurred and for which they were penalized.

Adding Mr. Thompson's name to your collection of names would seem to be a fait accompli, since he has indisputably made a much greater impact on Anglophone societies than those individuals you've listed so far, Mr. Allen notwithstanding. If perhaps you would prefer not to use Mr. Thompson as an example for your list, whatever your reasons may be, then that is obviously your prerogative. However, should a child of yours someday ask, "why didn't you put Hunter Thompson on that list of famous people whose parents were librarians?" I would not want to hear your explanation.

The late Mr. Thompson was the most astute analyst of late 20th century and early 21st century usa politics whose wrote extensively about that festering subject. As a political sociologist whose research studies have kept me abreast of the noted scholars in that field, I can say without reservation that Mr. Thompson's views come closer to essential truths about US politics than any other writer of the late 20th century. His writing wasn't for peers in academia, nor was he writing for the New York Times or any other mainstream publication. He was writing because he believed his voice should be heard. After all, there was a notable absence of writers whose experiences gave them credible knowledge of the theory and practice of US politics, as his did, and which praxis gave his work the credibility that was lacking in academic or mainstream coverage. Many would agree that it was for the benefit of the greater society that he chose to pursue such a mission for his lifework. And he did it throughout his 40-plus year career while keeping his integrity intact. He was the usa's most accurate political critic, and its most accessible social critic as well, and that country has been a bit worse for wear since his voice was silenced earlier this century. The fact that he chose to end his life should be seen as a last testament to his uncompromising belief in being the master of his own fate. The fact that he chose to depart shortly after the 2nd inauguration of the usa's worst president in history seems to be a fitting conclusion to his life. After all, he lived his life publicly, and what better statement could one make about the bankruptcy of the usa political system than to end one's life after such an inauspicious occasion as the beginning of four more years of betrayal, duplicity, and venal political practices?

Paul Allen, even with his ostentatious philanthropy, would be unable to make a claim for integrity and honesty throughout his career, given the unethical business practices that have been a hallmark of Microsoft, of which he was a sitting board member until November 2000. I have no idea if he was instrumental, or just incidental, to the monopolistic practices of that company, but I can't recall reading any denunciations by him in regard to the crimes of microsoft. To me, that casts a significant amount of blame on him for his inaction and silence, since he was obviously in a position where he could have made an impact if he had chosen to do so. His very public philanthropy seems to be from a page out of the John D. Rockefeller book on public image rehabilitation. The world could do with a few less billioinaire dilettantes if the priorities in the developed countries weren't so warped by those dilettantes themselves, meaning that they've robbed so much wealth from society that their philanthropic acts are indeed necessary,albeit their idiosyncratic and unprofessional policy making committees render them largely ineffective. Besides, Mr. Allen's largesse doesn't even come to 10% of his wealth, which puts him in the category of 'underperforming giver' according to conventional standards of tithing and philanthropy.

But Mr. Allen is not the subject I wish to address, Mr. Thompson is, and in particular, his omission from a collection of names of great people whose parents were librarians. As mentioned, it is none of my business why you wish to compile such a collection of names. However, since you have made a public request for contributions, I feel it is incumbent upon me to suggest that Hunter S. Thompson be added to such a list, or a collection of names, as you have phrased it. Should you wish to leave his name off of such a list, that too is your prerogative, although I feel it would shine an unfavorable light on yourself for the reasons mentioned above, among others, such as. why would a librarian censor a list for his children of great people whose parents were librarians? If your reasons for compiling such a collection are an attempt to forestall any aspersions that your children's peers might choose to hurl at them because of the occupation of their father, I think it would be unwise to choose such a reactive tactic. Any decent child should know that being a librarian is one of the most noblest pursuits to which one can aspire. You could even boast that Mr. Keith Richards would have liked to have been a librarian had he not sought a career in music. And there are few people alive today who are greater than Mr. Keith Richards, in any defition of that benighted term.

Anyway, thank you for your time and effort in producing the Heitor Villa-Lobos website. It is a bit sketchy on the biographical information, but as noted there are plenty of biographies available as well as the easily accessible wikipedia site. In the meantime, you might find the two links at the bottom useful. These links are to two lists that were found in less than thirty minutes in an advanced search using google. They are short, but at least they'll increase the size of your collection of names by a factor of three. I'm sure with your professional skills you can find greater lists than those humbly offered by me. One links to a list of some famous people whose mothers were librarians, and the other links to a list of famous people whose fathers were librarians. These lists classify the names they include as belonging to famous people rather than great people, probably for the same reasons why I questioned your use of the term 'great' when collecting names for a list of notable offspring of librarians. Why these lists are segregated by gender, I have no idea.

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6656699.html

http://www.lisnews.org/follow_celebs_librarian_dads

sincerely,

doug eaves

the inhumanity of google

2010-11-19T20:58:00.001-08:00

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Your duplicity in and exploitation of a recondite 'online community' is repulsive. You could give an email address that will connect with an employee, human or otherwise, at google. It has been rumored that there are not any humans employed at google, and that all of the automated equipment is simply second rate discards that the fools at microsoft and yahoo couldn't program properly. Google bought them at a nickel on the dollar and due to superior programming skills of a couple of chronic nose-picking masturbators, google was able to dominate online services. Nothing i've seen in google's operations contradicts this rumor since google does possess superior software services and it is impossible to contact a huiman being who is employed by google. Thank you model number JwRV9x65qc001, your attention to this matter is sincerely appreciated. unwillingly yours, sal

i'm very happy for you

2010-11-19T20:31:00.001-08:00

dear Harsha,

what wonderful news. you have a laptop. thank you for this information. are there any other developments in your life these days? work? school? at least you have a new laptop, so i guess things are fine. please don't add my name and email address to sites of merchants. i have all of the electronic goods i need, and receiving ads from merchants wastes my time and places one of my email addresses in the files of merchants, where i don't want my email addresses to be placed. i already spend enough time deleting unwanted email ads. more of such are an inconvenience. if you have genuine news about your activities or plans, i would like to hear them. but i don't need to hear about the wonderful deals of an online merchant. i have 2 laptops and 2 netbooks. i bought a new hp netbook in the usa last month that cost $300 (25,000 yen). it has 250 gigs of memory and a dual core 166 hz processor. it would be very surprising if any online distributor could beat that since it came from a huge franchise store in the usa where everything is dirt cheap now. they are having a very serious economic depression in that country. it's wonderful if you happen to have a lot of yen. take care. sincerely, d e

On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 12:16 AM, Gallage Harsha Dicaprio <harsha2958@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi , long time no seeing you !
There is good news I want to share . For a long time , I want to buy
a laptop , one that is high quality but low price . This morning I got
my laptop , just one week after I put the order on the site (

The site has many kinds of electric products , like mobile phones , TV
, Games , and so on . All of the products are original and brand new .
You can see it yourself in your spare time . I believe you won't
disappoint and get some surprises . The laptop I get is really high
quality and it arrives me so quickly . Hope you can get what you want
on the site , too .
Best regard .

Solve a Problem - Site security issues; idiots are sending me messages that i find harassing

2010-11-18T19:11:00.001-08:00

YouTube Support Staff,

Well, it would be very interesting to see one of the majors make a claim for a bootleg copy of studio demos that are, apparently, owned by the shady little company that manufactured the disc. The Rogue label, a member of GEMA, claims exclusive ownership to that recording, and nowhere is any connection to EMI shown by that shady little company that manufactured the disc. I would assume that EMI owns the copyright of Rolling Stones material that was officially released during the period in question, but i've yet to see any claim by EMI that they control the Rogue label. So, they own music released by their company or one of their subsidiaries, and I would be a fool to use any music owned by one of the major labels. The Rogue label is not a member of the EMI family of labels.

So, I use copies of bootleg recordings that have NEVER been released by a major label. Any fool could see that the copy of Heaven I uploaded is a full minute longer than the official release version. And no, it hasn't been slowed down or altered in any way. It's just a different version from what was given to EMI to put on Tattoo You. I assume EMI owns the material on Tattoo You. Likewise, I assume they don't own the matierial on Tattoo You Sessions released by Rogue, since Rogue claims they own the recording. I saw no claim by EMI anywhere on the label, sleeve, jacket, or the tiny monitoring cameras embedded in the disk itself. So, I assume that the Rolling Stones, and especially Mr. Keith Richards and Mr. Mick Jagger, would own the song, but i fail to see how EMI could possibly own that song.

If I'm not mistaken, the Glimmer Twins learned their lesson many years ago about selling away the publishing rights to their songs. So, please explain to me how EMI can make a blanket claim on a recording of a song by Mr. Richards and Mr. Jagger, performed by the Rolling Stones, and on the Rogue label? Where does EMI fit into this? Any fool with a tin ear could tell the difference between the studio version and the unreleased version that i have uploaded. It's tiresome dealing with corporate morons whose only integrity is directed to how many dollars they can suck up their noses or stuff in their asses. So, do what you wish. I don't give a fuck. There are more interesting ways to spend time than dealing with brain dead peons employed by corporate behemoths. thank you for your time and consideration.

sincerely,

a harassed youtuber

the video in question can be cfound at the following url

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QEWG09WSUA

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=77402&ctx=share

Shared with Google Share Button

Copyrights, dead links, and media whores

2010-11-16T20:27:00.000-08:00

It would be nice if the link for usa government documents about copyright law wasn't a dead link. Are you aware that you are wasting people's time by having useless links in the support section? You could just say, go find the information yourself. That would be more helpful than insinuating that you gave a damn. Since you aren't legal counsel, as you so cogently reminded readers on one of the initial pages about copyrighted material, couldn't you at least be a little more than an incompetent office flunky? I'd fire you in a minute if you sent me a dead link as crucial as this one. After all, the game is copyright, isn't it, and if you don't have the rules, and know how to bend them, then you've got the chance of an ice cube in hell in the wonderful world of interactive media. Well, it would be very interesting to see one of the majors make a claim for a bootleg copy of studio demos that are, apparently, owned by the shady little company that manufactured the disc. The Rogue label, a member of GEMA, claims exclusive ownership to that recording, and nowhere is any connection to EMI shown by that shady little company that manufactured the disc. The Rogue label, a member of GEMA, and nowhere is any connection to EMI shown. Since I would assume that EMI owns the copyright of Rolling Stones material that was officially released by them during the period in question, but i've yet to see any c laim by EMI that they control the Rogue label. So, they own music released by their company or one of their subsidiaries, and I would be a fool to use any music owned by one of the major labels.
So, I use copies of bootleg recordings that have NEVER been released by a major label. Any fool could see that the copy of Heaven I uploaded is a full minute longer than the official release version. And no, it hasn't been slowed down or altered in any way. It's just a different version from what was given to EMI to put on Tattoo You. I assume EMI owns the material on Tattoo You. Likewise, I assume they don't own the matierial on Tattoo You Sessions released by Rogue, since Rogue claims they own the recording. I saw no claim by EMI anywhere on the label, sleeve, jacket, or the tiny monitoring cameras embedded in the disk itself. So, I assume that the Rolling Stones, and especially Mr. Keith Richards and Mr. Mick Jagger, would own the song, but i fail to see how EMI could possibly own that song. If I'm not mistaken, the Glimmer Twins learned their lesson many years ago about selling away the publishing rights to their songs. So, please explain to me how EMI can make a blanket claim on a recording of a song by Mr. Richards and Mr. Jagger, performed by the Rolling Stones, and on the Rogue label? Where does EMI fit into this? Any fool with a tin ear could tell the difference between the studio version and the unreleased version that i have uploaded. It's tiresome dealing with corporate morons whose only integrity is directed to how many dollars they can suck up their noses or stuff in their asses. So, do what you wish. I don't give a fuck. There are more interesting ways to spend time than dealing with brain dead peons employed by corporate behemoths.

Why are you contacting me?

2010-07-12T22:19:00.001-07:00

Dear Annoying Peons with Limited Internet Skills,

Why have you sent me an URGENT email about immigration news to countries that I will never visit again, much less ones where I would immigrate? Besides, I immigrated from the USA, the country of my citizenship, to Japan 13 years ago, where I am a permanent resident. It took 37 years to find a way that I could permanently leave the USA, although I still keep my US citizenship because I have family there and don't need the hassle of trying to enter that horrid country on a foreign passport. But you've sent me news about Australia for god's sake. I went there once, which was my first and last visit to that poor excuse for a country. It was one of the saddest places I've ever been in my life. Everyone knows that they are stuck in one of the most isolated spots in the world. And 90% of the population knows why they are there too. Their ancestors were released from British prisons for crimes and misdemeanors a couple of centuries ago and shipped half way around the world so there would be little chance of them returning. The Australians I've met in Japan show no inclination to return there. I can't blame them. It's not so bad if you like a decent climate, but being a surrogate of the USA at the 'bottom' of the world is not an envious position in global realpolitik.

To the point at hand though, you found my name somehow and sent me an email. This was a mistake on your part. I do not appreciate receiving unsolicited messages from flunkies at some organization that robs poor people of their money and then sends them to countries where they will be exploited by unscrupulous employers. So, please kindly remove my name from your list of potential victims. I will not be immigrating to an Anglophone country, nor will I be needing your services for anything else. I can visit the USA whenever I choose, which is infrequently, but since I'm a US citizen I can go there and leave as I please. Likewise, since I'm a permanent resident of Japan, I can come and go from here as I wish, as well. Since I'm retired, there is no reason for me to have a work visa for anywhere. The future places I'll visit require no visas for US citizens. I'll not be returning to India in this lifetime, of that you can be assured. So, your services are not wanted or needed, and unless you want me to waste more of your time by telling you why I wouldn't immigrate to Canada even if they were giving away free land, I'll tell you that story in the next message. Good day sir or madam, or whatever category into which you might fit.

Cordially yours,

Salgoud Samoht, Chairman Emeritus

ICUUCME International

On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 8:49 AM, <News@globalvisas.com> wrote:

As part of our ongoing dialogue with clients we can confirm several important changes to international immigration laws' have recently taken place.

Here are the headlines:

UK immigration cap the number of migrant workers

Australia re-opens their doors to skilled migration

Canada cap the number of skilled migrants

To paraphrase we believe NOW is the most important period within Global Immigration for the last 100 years.

If you are still interested in immigrating to another country and want to find out more about how the changes may affect you our team are ready to provide a free assessment of your circumstances - online or over the phone, we look forward to hearing from you.

Global Visas are also delighted to be able to announce our new office in the Philippines making this our tenth office world-wide.

Global Visas bringing world-wide expertise and local knowledge to all our client's cases.
www.globalvisas.com

*******************************************************************************************************
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Re: Does Orbitz employ human beings? [Incident: 100621-001896] thank you, Gavin

2010-06-29T15:40:00.001-07:00

Dear Gavin,

Yes, I arrived back in Japan a week ago. It was very frustrating trying to use the automated customer service system of Orbitz. The phone I used when calling Orbitz was the mobile i had in India, the number of which was not registered with my orbitz account. So, the system wouldn't accept the number from which i was calling, that being my Indian mobile. So, when I called back, I tried to enter the number of my Japanese line phone, but the computer was smart enough to know that i wasn't calling from that line. At that point, i tried to get a human being but was unsuccessful after being on hold for 15 minutes. My time is more valuable than waiting for a slacker to get to the phone. So, I decided to try email again.

More automated responses were the result of that effort. That's when i began to get a little bit disturbed.

I realize that to keep costs down and help traveler's save money on tickets, it is useful to use the IT equipment rather than human beings. But this is the first time that i've been unable to contact a human being at some point within a few hours. You advertise a 24/7 customer service number, but putting a customer through such a hassle should hardly be called a service. A more appropriate designation would be customer inconvenience repository, or something like that.

Although the service by the flight staff and attendants on Air India was excellent, their airport terminal employees all need some refresher courses in customer relations. In Bangalore, the young man at check-in forgot to give me a boarding pass, and since it was 6:30 in the morning, i wasn't exactly sharp. So, after hauling my luggage up to the entry point to the gate, and waiting in line for half an hour, i had to go back downstairs and search for a boarding pass. The young man 'knew' he gave it to me, but when i went to search the only other place where i went before going up to the search nazis, a younger man came running to me and said, 'here it is sir, it was on the floor.' Right. The older punk didn't have the spine to admit he made a mistake. It was a very disgusting display of inadequacy and insecurity.

I always put my boarding pass with my ticket after check-in because they always hand them both back to you at the same time as they show you the time and gate on the pass. But not this time. I put my new e-ticket in my pocket as i always do, but didn't check for the boarding pass. My mistake after all, i guess. Lesson learned: don't expect too much from underpaid peons.

The worst part of the emergency return to Tokyo adventure was check-in at DEL for the flight to NRT. I happened to be the only westerner among hundreds of people lined up in front of the Air India check-in counters. The pace was worse than going through Beijing International a year before they renovated that part of the airport to accommodate people for the 2008 Olympics. It took an hour to pass through customs then. But at DEL, the inefficiency and inconsistent procedural checks were astounding.

When I finally got up to the check-in counter for my boarding pass for Air India flight 306, the young man started trying to pull the plastic off of my passport photo. He told me it was pretty beat up. I took off my tinted glasses and said, "it's nearly 10 years old, i've traveled a lot, and i got old goddamnit." He said he was just doing his job. I told him, "do it, then." His sheepish reaction showed that I caught him screwing around with me, just because he could.

I'm a 50 year old recently retired college professor and administrator and have been to countless countries for business and pleasure over the past nine and a half years. Of course, my passport is beat up. The fact that i was wearing an italian suit and a designer tie with my graying hair and 181 cm height make me an obviously suspicious person among those checking in at Air India in DEL. After I called the young man on his stupidity in wasting people's time by hassling me, he stamped my passport with a guilty look on his face. I've been around too much and am familiar with all the different cultures in South, Southeast, and East Asia. There was no excuse for him displaying that sort of attitude to me. He was in a position of 'power' and could screw around with someone. Identifying that sort of unprofessional behavior by staff is part of my expertise. Likewise, I don't get fucked over without consequences.

There are reasons for that. I enjoy writing and take pleasure in recounting horrible experiences that I have suffered by incompetent and useless service-oriented operations. Your sincere apology is too little and too late. When i make mistakes i encourage others to tell me (except for punctuation rules; i already know them, but they waste time). This is how we learn. I have the confidence to know that i can be wrong sometimes and it won't destroy my credibility or status. It just shows i'm human. But the display by the Air India airport terminal staff in Bangalore and in Indira Gandhi International Airport have made it certain that I will not return to India, nor will I fly Air India again.

In a way, they have improved the poor impression i have of Orbitz, since they transferred my anger about the lack of customer service received from your organization, to the unprofessional and incompetent service of their terminal employees. It would be a nice gesture if you could get the ticket for the September 15 flight on Air India 306 cancelled for me. I doubt I'll bother with it, and I'm not expecting much from you either.

Air India has two websites for 24/7 customer service. These have two different numbers to call. Of course, neither of them worked. So, I couldn't resolve the matter by changing the ticket through Air India since there was no way to make contact with them. Whether I would have gotten a human or a non-human response was beside the point, since contact was never made in the first place. This was the 'Option B' offered by the Orbitz website. Thanks again for nothing, Orbitz.

As I mentioned in an email and listed on my flight preferences, cost is not a factor that concerns me as much as convenience does. Your service and Air India have both failed miserably in this regard as I needed an emergency flight back to Tokyo. I'll use a travel agent in the future. One who can assure me that if my plan changes, I won't be subjected to inconvenience, frustration, and humiliation. And the 'customer service' diptych of Orbitz and Air India will make a nice epilogue for my book. Thank you Gavin for this opportunity to share my experience with you.

Sincerely yours,

Thomas D. Eaves, Professor Emeritus

Gregg International College

Tokyo, Japan

On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 8:03 AM, Orbitz - RRD Escalations <erd@orbitz.com> wrote:

Subject

Does Orbitz employ human beings?

Discussion Thread

Response (Gavin) 06/21/2010 06:03 PM

Hi Thomas,

Hope you're doing well.

We thank you for taking the time in writing us regarding your travel concerns.

I was reading your message and I learned that you wanted to complain about customer service for
not helping you with your exchange request.

We regret to hear this and I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused.

As I read that you have already booked a one-way ticket, I believe that you are now requesting to get a refund for
the original return ticket. I went ahead and sent an email to Air India to verify the cancellation/refund policy.

I will send you an email once we received their response.

Hoping for more patience on your part.

Sincerely,

Gavin || 64352
Supervisor
Orbitz Worldwide

Customer 06/20/2010 11:35 PM

Dear Orbitz,
Thank you for your timely response. But I must question your assumption of
using the plural of the word 'services.' It would be more appropriate to
designate Orbitz as offering as a 'service' or selling an e-ticket, and then
well, good luck buddy. Because that was my belabored point in the previous
message: I have NOT received any service from Orbitz since late March.
I have been requesting a service to change a reservation from Orbitz for
nearly 12 hours, yet have failed to receive anything that remotely resembles
a service. Unfortunately, the phone number for 24 hour Air India Customer
Service for Bengaluru (Bangalore, BLR) was no longer in operation last
night. I do not know if they will be in operation today or not.
I offered to just buy a new ticket from them in an email, but they couldn't
even reply. That leaves me with buying a $461 e-ticket from Orbitz online,
which I can't print-out because I don't have a printer here, to return to
Tokyo via Air India 306 DEL to NRT on Wednesday, June 23. You can sell me a
new ticket on-line, but the e-ticket I already have is useless in regard to
trying to change the reservation. Very clever Orbitz. I'll be sure and plan
for unavoidable emergencies that occur 6000 km away 3 months in the future
much better on my next trip.
Sincerely,
Thomas D. Eaves
On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 4:24 AM, Orbitz TLC Service <
OrbitzTLCService@orbitz.com> wrote:
>

Response (E-mail Customer Service) 06/20/2010 05:54 PM

Dear Thomas,

Thank you for contacting Orbitz.

I understand you are unhappy about the services you have received from Orbitz.

I have forwarded your issue to a supervisor. They will review and respond as soon as possible. I apologize for any inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience while this matter is examined.

When we do learn of a problem, Orbitz takes immediate action to prevent any future disappointing experiences for our customers.

Sincerely,

Jessica Parker
Orbitz Email Service Team

Orbitz - Travel Well
www.Orbitz.com

Auto-Response 06/20/2010 03:11 PM

Thank you for contacting Orbitz.

Customer 06/20/2010 03:11 PM

Congratulations! You have one first prize in providing me with the most humiliating experience during my 3
months of leisure travel in India. That entitles you to an entire chapter in my upcoming book, 'How to See the
Real India.' The book on the whole will be a very positive portrayal of the traditional India that is alive and well,
but often gets overlooked due to the fascination with the idea of making human beings obsolete as units of
production. Kurt Vonnegut's book 'Player Piano' was truly a prophetic tale authored around 50 years ago.

And Orbitz, you gave me an excellent coda to my book of why a person may wish to remain in India rather than
leaving. Your organization is the first one to that has broken the 2 hour barrier in wasting my time as I futilely
tried to communicate with a human being. At least Google doesn't try to hide the fact that their production is
completely operated by cybernetics and robotics. But they tend to get their use of such machinery. You don't.

And for that you get the prize. All I wanted to do was change a return flight reservation. This is not a difficult
procedure, but your policy has made it one of the most humiliating, denigrating, and despicable experiences I've
endured in over 50 years. Thank you for the wealth of empirical data you have provided to substantiate my claim
that Orbitz should only be contacted if one happens to be a non-humanoid in need of travel services. Thank you
for the enlightening experience.

Sincerely,
Thomas D. Eaves

[---001:003681:50882---]

mr. ingram it's been a while

2010-06-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

March 7 Tokyo

Dear Mr. Ingram, This feels very nice sitting down and writing a message to
you. As we both acknowledged, we correspond in the spirit of correspondence
(co-responsiveness) . . . wait none of those make sense. Neither either.
Yeah, i've finally lost it. Over the edge, across the line, no going back.
I'm leaving before the end of the month, and i'm doing it in the way that
has always worked best for me, when it is only me who I must be concerned
about. I've been planning on India, but keep getting odd feelings about it.
I don't know why, maybe it has been my mystical place ever since I went to
Guam and saw that little tropical paradises in the pacific are truly
nowhere, and no way to get anywhere else except by plane or ship or
intercellular defragmentation-refragmentation equipment of which i'm
applying for a patent. [I'm still waiting on my patent for snake-oil, which will be retroactive to the hard time i did in Tokyo.]

Frag - de-frag process is quite simple really. Have a person sit in a chair holding
a piece of semtec and when i'm safely out of the soundproof room, it is
ignited blowing the customer into millions of pieces, but the room has actually
been covered with a type of organic liquid proof sheeting that has a life
preserving substance, which i believe is skippy peanut butter, spread all
over it to sustain those parts until they can be re-assembled at the customer's
destination, inside a hospital or candy factory. Somewhere in Brazil. My
partners are sort of evasive when I directly ask them what they do with
customers once they have re-assembled them but they often give vague answers
'like doing well, partly anyway,' and 'you know the funniest thing happened in
shipment, the box with the customer was in the same holding compartment on the
plane as a group of lions being taken to Vegas. Well, that one became lunch.
No relatives, so no problem.'

Anyway, it will allow me to retire in luxury. That's right! Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire, Africa, one of the cheapest places in the world. So, unti someone kills me and takes my money, I'll be living like a king. No seriously, I will probably go to India just because i've prepared more for it and my bank card/credit care expires in May, naturally,about two months away. There is a branch of my bank in Mumbai, but I don't know if any employee at my bank here speaks English [they didn't although it's a global Japanese bank, which is a meaningless phrase, since Japanese culture, and most of the people are clueless about what is happening outside of japan].

I thought of opening a Bank of India account here in Tokyo but i've got the problem of what to use for a permanent address, since I will be transient for a while [i did check that out; they put me in a room with a japanese who asked why i didn't like the usa. he then said Indian people stink. at that point, i got fairly emotional about poverty, the stink of natto and negi and last night's alcohol on salarymen in the inhumane transport system of Tokyo, and that he had no idea what i might or might not, want to do, or what i might, or might not like. he lived in Seattle for 5 years and liked it. I told him to go back there. at that point, he went and got his boss, an Indian man, who I could communicate clearly and openly and he answered my questions in about 3 minutes. Racism is rampant in japan]

The girlfriend does things that simply make the process of arranging things more difficult if I ask for her help, so i don't ask anymore, and i've been skipping the
visits more and more frequently. She didn't want to come. I can't here. I'm
recovering from an 84 hour headache which actually hurt for w while even
though I was taking the maximum safe dose for me. I don't go over that
limit. Yet, I still felt the pain even after taking a day's worth of medication (equal to about 20 mgs of morphine after if is metabolized in the liver by opiod receptors. But to get to that amount, I must take 8 times the recommended dosage here to get the desired effect, meaning i don't feel depressed because my body wants more.

Fortunately, I got a big script for diazepam (valium) and depas (ativans?) from one
of my doctors . The new school year starts in April and I can't be here then. So, I'm
not giving my girlfriend the money to pay my rent for next month, so she'll
have it figured out that i'm not coming back, although I might have said I
would just go for a couple of weeks, but that was a month or so ago. We had
beautiful weather in January, but now it's back to the usual cold rain,
unstable skies more rain a few rays of sun then rain again all in 80 hours.

It was hell. I can not take it physically anymore because the
medication in maximum 'safe' dosages, daily, only works as a mood stabilizer, not as an effective pain reliever for moderate to severe pain. One of the reasons I
chose India is that I figure i'll be able to go into a pharmacy wearing a
nice suit and tie and standing a few centimeters above them and in my
professional voice ask them for something for my ulcerated hip joint or the pain
from the two horns starting to grow out of the scalp on top of my head, well
maybe that last one would be a little extreme, but i do check daily
just to make sure that my feet haven't changed into cloven hooves and there's
no pointy tail extending from my posterior.

yeah that's how i feel but I've noticed the girlfriend makes sure her needs are taken of first,so I figure that would be a pretty astute course of action to take myself. The two or three things that i have really needed help with, she wouldn't provide. And
basically I'm sick of living a lie. I left my wife nearly 3 years ago, I haven't heard from her or seen her in 6 months, I sent her an email, but it went unanswered. maybe because the message was sent by youtube with the song Changes by Black Sabbath.

I saw the Oz in Memphis but only remember the last song because
I was so drunk and fucked up. my ride left. it was 100 km back to my town. I
had thrown my shirt in the air in the frenzy of the closing song. it was
late september, and the weather was no longer warm. I walked to the bus
station and almost had enough money so they gave me a ticket and they gave me a
t-shirt shirt at the bus station. It was cool. It was a picture of a Florida car
license plate, one which you can have personalized, it said "ARRIVE STONED."
'Oh boy those were days' says former delinquent drunk and pot-smoking drug
abuser. i really liked that t-shirt but gave it to my underage girlfriend from Missouri
whom I transported across state lines for immoral purposes. Oh yeah those
were days. They sucked actually but I did have some great times and learned
about the body's remarkable resilience, as well as its weaknesses.

April 6 from Jaipur, Rajasthan, India (edited from earlier version)

Now at nearly 50, the resilience is no longer there and it won't come back. I can still put out as much physical force, if not more, than when I was a younger man, but the days it takes to recover are 3 or 4 rather than a day or two, and it's much more painful now too. But, we adjust. I too went from young adult to late middle-aged man. I don't know what happens between the late 20s and early 40s, except we ought to contribute to making babies rather than just fucking for fun. But fucking for fun is so much more attractive an option than worrying about a screaming infant with a messy diaper 9 months later. My girlfriend feels the same way.

(edited in Bangalore on June 14, 2010) Thank you for the message. It's good to hear that your mother is in a place where they can provide more care. Hopefully it will make it a little easier on you and your father. i feel kind of guilty having chucked it all. I retired on good terms, but missed my going away party. since the clean break to Rajasthan via Delhi began about 10 days ago. After studying about Poona for 6 months, i decided on Rajasthan instead. I've always wanted to come here for the desert. It's close to Jaipur, but still a hundred km or so until you reach it, heading directly west. If it starts to rain here, i will head that direction. (I spent 2 weeks in Jodhpur and it had the best weather for me but the 50 degree C daytime temps got to me pretty quickly, so I stole the Yellow Pages for Bangalore that was in the office of the last hotel I stayed at in Jodhpur. Had they had Yellow pages for Madras, I'm sure i would have gone there. I had to escape that heat. Even if you aren't outside, when the power fails the air and ceiling fans go off, and in about 10 minutes the room gets very room inside, outside is worse, and there are no swimming pools.
Power outages are a daily reality lasting from a few moments to 3 hours one day here in Bangalore where I've lived for a month and a half.

Tomorrow, hopefully, I can get a LAN card for my laptop so I can use go online in my room (didn't happen, you need a year's rental agreement which is impossible on a 6 month tourist visa). I'm doing the budget thing. I got a really good driver here who is saving me money [the more he saves me, the bigger the tip I give him: he understands this principle very well; he's searching for an apartment for me where i'll be able to live really cheaply; (June 14, he still calls me asking for money to help him buy a car, there is always some angle, and you can never forget that you are westerner because they never do, but it's still better here than the usa, although I do prefer Japan, especially because of my lovely concierge at the Hotel Myorenji, she renamed her apartment to accommodate the nomadic doug)].

Daily expenses for everything are already $12 a day cheaper than just the rent of my apartment in Tokyo. But of course, I'm retired now. And writing, gratis. if you're interested in the state of racial relations in the usa now, please check out the comment that was posted on this blog after I wrote it about a BNet piece (since then the woman who runs an agency in the usa has asked to use some of my writing about racism in the usa and its ongoing effects due to a culture a 400 year-old Euro-american culture that simply considered it proper for white people to rule the world as they say fit. In the usa, this aspect of the culture has not changed, but white people won't admit it because they obviously have the most to lose if true justice and equal rights were given to all; anyway, the woman told me that people would listen to a white man writing my 'radical' ideas about the racist culture of the usa, while they dismiss an African American who says the very same thing using the same data and historical evidence.

That country is hopeless. I feel for my African American friends there, but many have done all right economically because of real changes that were made in the 1970s and caused white people to riot in Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta, and probably a few other places. Not so much in the South because private schools had already opened and the white parents just sent their white children to the schools with other white kids while 90% of the public schools had enrollment of African American children. It took a little over 20 years for american society to obviate the Supreme Court's decision in 1954 that 'separate, but equal' (segregated schools) were inherently unfair if for no other reason than the the 'separate' modified which implies that there is a difference in value or worth of those concerned, so they must be separated. Obviously, in the usa, that means African Americans did/do face discrimination on a regular basis.

http://multicultclassics.blogspot.com/2010/01/7480-teachable-moment-sponsored-by-pine.html

It's the first time I've gotten positive responses to something i wrote as a comment about a piece in BNet the CBS online business 'zine (?), from which it was uploaded onto the link above.

When i get a LAN card, I'll send a decent reply to your message soon. I've missed our communications, but as you can see above, i was really losing it in Tokyo. This is the best i've felt in a long long time. However, I haven't been online in about 12 days and there are many messages to send. I wish the best for you and your parents, and i look forward to communicating more frequently. I'm retired now, and have my days free to engage in idle musings. or just being idle, which comes quite naturally to me. it's a southern trait, especially for arkansans, but can be found in other southern states as well. people do that all over, but it's been elevated to an art form in arkansas. OK, thanks again for your message Mr. Ingram, it's very good to hear from you. I'll spend some time with your message in the days (months, sorry my friend, many miscalculations were made) ahead, and send you a proper reply. please take care and give my best to your family and current sexy and nubile potential marriage partner (!) kindly yours, doug

June 14, 2010 from Bangalore (Bengaluru), Karnataka, India

Dear Mr. Ingram,

Good evening, sir. It's been much too long since I sent an updated reply. So much has changed, in my mind, since I undertook this journey. I've realized that my girlfriend is really thinking of me and loves me. The Japanese way of doing this is very different from the American way, and one would think that after being with Japanese women for over 20 years I'd have learned this by now, but I'm a very slow learner. Anyway, those statements written above from early March reflect a mind in a state of confusion much worse than usual. The weather was cold rain everyday, my body and head hurt, I wanted to be anywhere but there, and I was going nuts (strike that, I think I went over the line sometime prior to March, maybe last August, I don't know).

I hope your mother is still stabilized. You have my empathy my friend. Although under very different circumstances, I watched my mother-in-law waste away over about 10 years and she died at age 62, complications from chronic alcoholism. It was so sad, and not one goddamn thing could be done. That's one of the reasons, if not the only reason, I'm on this trip to India. It seemed like a cheap and easy place to kick the dihydrocodeine habit. A slight miscalculation on my part, made the transition to codeine, that was easily available in Rajasthan but less so here, more difficult than I anticipated. As i read on wikipedia, dihydrocodeine can be 100% to 150% the strength of codeine. The difference depends on whether you happen to be a fast metabolizer or a slow one, the fast ones getting more phamacological benefit from the drug. I am a fast metabolizer, since the dihydrocodeine molecule seemed to fit like a glove into the mu receptor in my liver that metabolizes that molecule into morphine. Anyway, when I started to run out of my 'medication' I brought from Japan, about a month ago (the amount I packed into empty vitamin and mineral bottles was pathetic, but fun for a month or so).

So, I found that I had to take about 90 mg. of codeine to get almost the same effect I could get from 60 mg. of dihydrocodeine. It didn't help matters since I'd recently read that some European country was using dihydrocodeine instead of methadone for heroin addicts. I've done both of those as well many years ago when I had no tolerance to opiates. Methadone was very strange and once or twice heroin was really good, but another time it had been cut so much that there was little effect. I quit street drugs shortly after that in 1988, prior to entering graduate school and completely changing my life in 2 months.

Change is not nearly as easy at 50 years old. Today is the first day i'm not going to use any opiate since 1991 (I have alprazolam to keep the anxiety down and a very mild synthetic opioid to deal with 'flu-like' symptoms, neither of which are 'fun' drugs for me, just therapeutical ones). I can't believe it's been that long, but for 6 of those years I kept it under control. It was only when the marriage fell apart and the relationship with my girlfriend and my duties at work became more stressful did I start taking more. And then more. And so on.

How are things going for you? One of the things I wanted to mention was that I encourage marriage or at least co-habitation. My best times in my adult life have been spent with my ex-wife or with present girlfriend (I left the disparaging remarks about her intact, just so you could get a glimpse of how 'out of it' I was. It became very clear after a month or so here that the girlfriend is true and for real. She cleaned up my apartment that looked like a disaster zone when I left, she sent 50 music CDs to my mom that I thought she would enjoy, she sent her a bouquet and beautiful vase for mother's day that was much more tasteful than anything i would've found, which I wouldn't have bothered with anyway this year since i talk with her more than twice as much here from India as I did when i was in Japan. And she sent her a birthday present of photos of me and some of her artwork). My mom is thrilled to be getting these things. Now, I plan to go back to Japan in late June or early July and live with my girlfriend in her apartment until she kicks me out. Then i'll go visit my mom and brother in the usa, back to Japan for the holidays and January, and maybe Morocco, Tunisia, Peru, or Northern Chile in February and March. That is if I can make it back to Japan in a 'normal' condition and rest for a month or two (I don't advise vacationing in India Mr. Ingram, unless you go to a resort of some place where I haven't been because life is not easy here; I stay in places where I am the only foreigner, not just the hotel, but the whole neighborhood, which makes it very interesting for me because i like meeting people from different cultural backgrounds, but life is hard and I won't retire here, although I'm sure i'll return because there is no cheaper place in the world that is also so safe). And the people are quite kind, generous, and honest here. That's been my experience for 2.5 months; but the New India is a myth, maybe it exists in some hi-tech campuses but I haven't seen it and I'm in Bangalore now, which is supposed to be the central location for all those foreign IT companies, but they are about 15 km away from where I'm staying; they are safely out in the suburbs with newly paved roads and independent power systems.

OK, my friend, I've been thinking of you and wishing the best for you and your family. Have you made your summer vacation plan yet? I just got a USB broadband modem last week that the hotel manager had to put in his name because foreigners aren't allowed to have one. Internet cafes are few and far between. Even in this relatively wealthy city, the poverty is overwhelming. Take care and sorry again for not getting some of those earlier passages off to you. It's been an interesting year so far. I hope the remainder of it is quite dull and boring, with much of it spent with my darling girlfriend in her little Yokohama apartment. It's so comfortable there. And families of bacteria don't invade my stomach on a regular basis. And Please forgive the dilatory nature of the replies, i have been undergoing a metamorphosis of such as Mr. Kafka might put it. Take care.
Kindly yours,
doug

Automated care, need some adjustment to the software?

2010-06-12T06:33:00.001-07:00

Dear Automated Care,

I will be needing a rental car for around a month when I visit the usa for a month sometime between late August to early November. No, I will not be in the usa from august until november, those are the earliest and latest times that I can give for my travel plans at the moment. It depends on the prices of flight tickets. I will NOT be leaving Narita during the third week of September. It's madness because it's a holiday week. My plans are tentative right now. I'm in Bangalore, India and will return to Yokohama, Japan, where I live, before traveling to the usa. I'm not sure how long I'll stay in India, so I don't know when I'll arrive back in Japan, so it's impossible for me to give a date when I'll be needing a rental car.

However, you have the pickup location wrong. I will be arriving at the airport in Memphis, Tennessee. I just don't know when. After a month of visiting family in Arkansas and Kansas, I'll drop the car off at the airport in Wichita (the bigger one, not the little one). Since I don't know when I will arrive in Memphis, it's impossible for to say when I'll be dropping the car off at the airport in Wichita. I'm sure you understand.

I'm retired, so I have no fixed schedule of when or where I have to be. And that's the way I like it. Although the mistake about the pickup location could have been mine, I doubt it, because Memphis is where I'll be arriving in the usa, so it seems like I would want to pick the car up there. Arriving in Memphis after a 15 hour trip from Narita (Tokyo) Japan and then taking a plane to Wichita to pick up a car seems rather inconvenient, wouldn't you think? And again, I can't book a car today, or next week, or maybe even next month, because I do not have a firm itinerary. I am leisure traveling at the moment, which means I do what I feel like doing when I feel like doing it where I feel like doing it, and I don't have to worry about getting back to work.

Besides, I was just checking prices to see which rental company has the best deal for a month long rental (I could be mistaken, but it seemed that avis and hertz were the only two companies that offered monthly rental plans rather than the exorbitant rates charged by other companies only on a weekly basis). It's been over two years since I've been in the usa, so i have no idea what an Aceo or any of the other american models are. On my last trip, I think i had i had a Hyundai, but i'm not sure. Since I will be driving from Arkansas to Kansas, I think a compact would be appropriate for me. I don't like big cars. As a matter of fact, I don't like cars at all, but when in the heartland of the usa, there's little choice except for some propeller plane which scares the hell out of me, or a bus, which is out of the question. So, I must rent a car.

I couldn't get any information about the prices without putting in the required information I just used the dates as given to access the information. They bear no relationship to the actual dates when I will be needing a PICKUP IN MEMPHIS and a DROP OFF IN WICHITA. It could be in late August, early September, late September, or early October. The time of my travel from Japan to the usa will be determined by the ticket prices. During peak travel times, ticket prices increase astronomically in Japan. Those peak periods concur with holidays. Since I'm retired I have no reason to travel when millions of Japanese people are scrambling to get to the airport so they can fly to Hawaii for 4 days and get back to the job on time.

So, if you really want to help, give me some ideas about when I can get the cheapest priced tickets (that don't require 3 or 4 transfers) for travel from Narita to Memphis and around a month later, a return flight from Wichita to Narita. Obviously, it's pointless to rent a car before getting a plane ticket, especially since the date of the departure from Narita to Memphis remains unknown at the present. But you could facilitate my decision-making process by giving me some information about the cheapest priced tickets during late August, early September, late September, or early October for flights from Narita to Memphis and a return flight about a month later from Wichita to Narita. Any suggestions would be warmly received. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thomas D. Eaves, Professor Emeritus
Gregg International College
Tokyo, Japan

On Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 7:19 AM, Orbitz <orbitz@my.orbitz.com> wrote:

Book your rental car today on Orbitz.
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Thomas, still looking for a car?

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excuse me, Ms. Bates but what in the hell are you talking about? can you write a message consisting of more than 14 words?

2010-06-05T03:57:00.001-07:00

Dear Ms. Bates, I don't know you and you don't me know. I might not
know Pami anymore but she was one of my favorite cousins when we were
young. and our personalities remain essentially unchanged from the
time we are 3 or 4 years old. So, while i don't know what pami's adult
interests are, nor do i know much else about her life now. But I do
know that she gave me plenty of fun and good times when we were young.
Time passes, we get old. We move to foreign countries and don't see
family for decades. So, forgive me if my comment was taken as too
'serious.' By the way, that's a very typical type of comment i receive
from americans whose attention span lasts about 12 minutes, the time
from the start of a teevee show until the first commercial when you go
get another bowl or ice cream or some double stuff oreo cookies, or
maybe even both! So, if you've got a comment to write to me don't
waste my time and insult my intelligence with cliches and assumptions
that i know the statement to which you are referring. I write about
3000 or 4000 words a day and it is difficult for me to remember each
comment article or post I write. ?Comprende Senorita? or is it Senora?
De mo, anata wa wakarimasu ka?
sal (aka tde, tom, doug, hakim, et al.)
On 6/4/10, Facebook <notification+z=lc=erf@facebookmail.com> wrote:
> Terrie Bates commented on Pami Kat Scoggins's status:
>
> "@ Salgoud ~ You don't know my Pami Kat. You took the statement way too
> seriously! Loosen up!<3"
>
> Reply to this email to comment on this status.
>
> To see the comment thread, follow the link below:
> http://www.facebook.com/n/?profile.php&id=1468504966&v=wall&story_fbid=122152191156844&mid=272579fG456bf509G14aa875G37&n_m=salgoudsamoht%40gmail.com
>
> Thanks,
> The Facebook Team
>
> ___
> Find people from your Gmail address book on Facebook! Go to:
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> This message was intended for salgoudsamoht@gmail.com. If you do not wish to
> receive this type of email from Facebook in the future, please click on the
> link below to unsubscribe.
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> 94304.
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>

--
Good wishes and many felicitations,

Salgoud Samoht, Honorary Emissary
ICC International
Bangalore, India

I'm back, Sal's comatose because i punched his lights out for trying to look like that fag on you computer

2010-06-04T20:36:00.001-07:00

Deares Deares Miki, thank you sweetie for being you. I will call the old woman soon and hear her joy and surprise at receiving such a thoughtful and attractive gift for her birthday. My energy is still not competely back since the monsoon effects here are a total body experience, meaning the big rain fucks me up from head to toe, and there's not much i can do about it because alternative medicine (superstition, voodoo, and magic) take precedence here over the one positive contribution the West has made to the world, it's scientifically-approach to medicine. And we can thank German chemists for those positive contributions since americans' first priority is 'can we make some money from this before people start dying from the toxic effects of our new pharmaceutical 'discoveries' (just one more reason why I hate the usa: if the almighy is not served it's not useful, whether it could be a huge benefit to human kind or not; contrast that with the German attitude of solving pharmacological problems for the sake of helping humanity, which is true if you know the history, but i guess you don't so that's why I added that little note). I'm better today, but only because i'm too pissed off at Mr. Gowda for taking me to some useless aryuvedic quacks who only gave me one medication that is useful, and actually pretty good too, although there were only four pills in the script which is an insult to me, a waste of my time, and harbors a feeling of revenge toward them all, which i will do shortly. Aryuvidic medicine is up with 'kampo,' homeopathy, and other systems based on magic, tradition, and superstition. In other words, they aren't medical practices, they are just methods to ensure that patients will die needlessly and painfully. Average lifespan in India is 64 years old, and it's not due completely to the lack of knowledge about public sanitation or inadequate diets, it's because so many suckers believe the traditional superstition that idiots who figure cinnamon oil can cure back pain. It can't, and it doesn't even help the pain since its a musculo-skeletal condition rather than a purely muscular problem. But those cocksuckers didn't listen to a word I said. they were worse than that evil cunt you found to destructive dental work on my teeth ( i haven't had a toothache, since I figured out how to take care of teeth in my condition; it's unorthodox but i haven't had a tooth ache in over 7months so I know I'm doing something right, because that's the longest time i haven't had a tooth ache in over 20 years). As I've said before, I know my body better than anyone else, both in a tactile sense and a pharmacological one as well. So, in a few minutes I will burn my back with a butane lighter where i was supposed to put some miracle oil that contains cinnamon and chili peppers and other condiments that should go into the body rather than applied on the outside of it. So, when mr. gowda asks how the medicine worked, I'll show him the blister on my back from the butane lighter and tell him the 'Mirakul Oil' did that because it says in tiny letters on the box, 'do not use on sensitive skin' which i have, and tell him that if this were the usa, those doctors would have a hell of malpractice suit on their hands. Then i'll tell them the vitamins made me puke and the only useful drug was the tramadol, and if I can't get a script or thirty (30) tramadol from those useless fakirs, then i won't his time or mine by going back (although tramadol is a synthetic narcotic, and i usually avoid those things, i'm desperate; there will be more really powerful changes in weather due to the monsoon, so i will leave here in couple of weeks and maybe go to Chennai for a little while; if it sucks, I'll fly up north to Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, just below Jammu and Kashmir; if it sucks too, i'll come back to japan. If your offer is still open for a stay at hotel Myorenji, i would love to take you up on it. and I'll buy you a new bed, becasue i've slept on some good beds during my travels, and even the worst ones were much better than the marshmallow that you sleep on. Is that OK? Just tell me, and I can always go to Tunisia or Morocco instead, since expenses have been so cheap lately that it looks like I've hardly spent any money at all when I look at my bank book. anyway, i've got to blister my back now and freak Mr. Gowda by the first degree burn that the useless aryuvdic medicine caused. I'm really curious to what his reaction will be: whether he will feel partly responsible for taking me to those motherfucking quacks or if he'll just say, 'well, it looks like you got sensitve skin' and if he says that i'll tell him NO shit that's what i was trying to tell those medical practioners yesterday but they ignored every word i said and i wanted to beat the shit out them for their ignorance and impudence, but i'm a nice guy, you know. OK, I'll keep you posted. and let me know if an early return to japan would be acceptable to you. because if not, I have other options, but I can't promise if I can get back to japan before november if i go to tunisia or morocco. or maybe vietnam, As usual i don't know but i miss you immennsely and even miss the calm unchanging weather of rainy season which is actually the easiest time in japan for me. take care my love.

I love you very very very much, doug

--- On Wed, 6/2/10, miki ohno <ohno.miki@gmail.com> wrote:

From: miki ohno <ohno.miki@gmail.com>
Subject: my engine started running
To: doug.eaves@gmail.com, doug.eaves@yahoo.com
Date: Wednesday, June 2, 2010, 8:28 PM

Deares Doug,

Yes, I was lucky to have been already at home when I got them. You
know I do open anything if you tell me not to. Every photos were
automatically shown on screen below your message without downloading
the attached files. I felt seriously happy and excited while
following the orders from the top photos, and bursted into laugh at
the Elvis. Wish I could show my physical reaction, but I don't have
such a lovely organ of obvious performance. I can tell that you made
it not like an usual night of a hump day of the week, and my energy or
something is flowing out. Thank you very much, now I'll take shower,
go to the bath room and follow your instruction (They are the
instruction to follow in order, right?) You are such an admirable
photographer who keeps me laugh by showing your daily life in India
started from the vegetable shot, not by sending anything like travel
photos. You know what I enjoy.

I love you,

Miki

eigo onegaishimasu

2010-06-04T19:47:00.001-07:00

Dear Penny Liu Peng,
Thank you for the invite to something. I know facebook and i'm a member under my alias, salgoud samoht, for reasons which should be pretty obvious if you got my email the other day about my fondness for recreational drugs (and of course their therapeutic value as well, which is nearly always the case when living around the swamp beside Tokyo Wan). Anyway, if you want send me any more messages in Japanese, I won't start writing letters to you in a mix of French, Italian, and Spanish. I'm not Ms. Liu and being in nation that makes China look like the epitome of modernization doesn't help. There's a reason why the average lifespan in India is only 64. 8 years. They've confused magic with medicine, just as Europeans did until the Germans' superior knowledge about chemistry brought the western world into a medical procedures that were based on science, rather than mysticism, tradition, and a complete lack of concern whether the patient died or not. China has an older system of traditional medicine that is just as useless as the Indian version, in Japanese called 'kampo' I think.

One stupid motherfucker posing as doctor in Japan tried to get me to take some vile smelling stuff to help me get over a fever, and i impolitely declined. He was the same the bastard who gave me an AIDS test without my prior consent. In the usa that would cause him to lose his medical license, if he even had one. Of course, it was negative, meaning I didn't have AIDS and still don't because i've had sex with only my wife and girlfriend over the past 21, well maybe 20, years (but remember this was 1998, and in Japan every western man who looked like he could get a piece of ass anytime he wanted it, was suspected of having AIDS; this was one of the first incidents that told me I'd better figure out how to game the medical system in Japan, or they would make me sick with their superstitiously magical medical practices imported from China many years ago; fortunately I learn quickly and thoroughly when my survival is at stake; I haven't lived 50 years by being ignorant about the drugs I take, as a matter of fact, my knowledge of pharmaceuticals is greater than most of the hundreds of pharmacists i've visited over the past 9 years, and besides my superior knowledge in a field that was learned through study and practice, I'm always wearing one of my designer neckties, which tells them that I'm serious, have more money than they do, and do not have time to listen to their inferior knowledge of pharmacology. I'm an arrogant american when it serves my purposes, and it's something I happen to be pretty good at, but it's also one more reason why I hate myself).

Getting back to the written Japanese language in messages sent to me. Don't, OK. It just makes me frustrated and reminds me that my old brain simply cannot learn such a new, to me, and arcane script as chinese idiograms, and i didn't bring a biligual dicitonary with me because most people speak English here in India, or at least someone within 3 meters does (it's really crowded here but nothing like Tokyo, maybe more like Yokohama, where I plan to live when i return probably sooner than i had planned becasue the monsoon has started where I am and it is giving me health problems similar to those i faced in Japan, except more intense at times so I'd like to slit my wrists and drift off into the long eternal sleep. but I won't because life is too interesting to take the easy way out (through Facebook, I recently learned that my two favorite cousins are both bipolar, the new term for manic-depression, and i figure i've got the same thing since my mother shows classic signs of depression; maybe my dad didn't but he died 33 years ago and my memory of him is not so clear anymore; it saddens me because my social skills are very similar to his and i would know myself a lot better if I could remember what he was like; it's point asking my mom because she divorced him 40 years ago because she got tired of him always having a girlfriend; I couldn't blame her for that, but she poisoned my mind about my father and it took me over 30 years to be able to understand why he behaved the way he did: it's because he was like me, and wanted to have fun as well as being a respected professional; my brother who acts more like dad, really has none of the same personality traits that propelled my father from a poor background to middle class life; by dying young, he gave me the same opportunity to be poor and work my ass off so I could be a respected professional like myself; I love my father and still miss him 33 years after his death because he gave me unconditional love even when i was causing lots of trouble; my mom loves me in her own way, but she wouldn't put up with my wildness and so that's why i was on my own at 17, my age when my father died. I can't blame her for that, and i've forgiven her, but it's something I can never forget because she could have helped me when i really needed it, but she chose not to. So, I don't feel much guilt about leaving her alone in a retirement home 18,000 km away, because she would probably return the favor to me. these things between me and my mom only started after i turned 15, since before then she was a great mom whom I credit with my love of reading, writing, and learning, without which i'd be, well, I don't know, but maybe in that sad situation my brother finds himself with no money, bad health, and constant pain from 35 years of working hard jobs (I stay in shape by carrying very heavy bags of books, CDs, and everything I might need should the Big ONE hit tokyo. I carry my 43 kg girlfriend around with one arm, since she weighs less than the aircraft parts i inspected so many years ago.

OK, Penny please forgive me if this essentially the same message i sent a few days ago: short term memory defects and i write many people these really long emails, only I don't tell them everything like I do you. why do I pester you in this way: You are one of the kindest and most sincere people i've ever met, so i trust you to keep to keep the info confidential. It wouldn't work well for me if word got out that eaves sensei was a doper for his last nine years in tokyo, especially if i ever find it necessary to get a job there again which i truly hope won't be the case, but to avoid that i'll have to die by the time i'm 60 because that's how long my 'retirement fund' should last, but my spending habits suggest I better die by 58 if I don't want to work at a regular job again, which I don't. I'll just keep writing and maybe enough people will be in interested how a professional sociologist/educator could also be a lifelong drug user/abuser.
Even when I was an undergraduate, the dean of students wanted to kick me out of university because i was so wild and always causing trouble, but my grades were too high and I never committed any serious crimes anyway, at least none that I caught doing.

So, Ms. Penny Liu, if you think you still want a middle aged unreformed wild boy for a friend, it is greatly appreciated. If i'm too scary for you, it's understandable. so take care my charming and dear friend and good luck with the studies and my offer of assistance
remains open to you always for reason mentioned. I hope this message isn't just a write of the previous one because the only person's time i like to waste is my own, since i can always find ways to entertain myself. Some of them are even legal! take care dear one, and i hope to see you in a few weeks.

kindly yours, doug
--- On Thu, 6/3/10, Penny Liu <invite+kr4myxk4byrx@facebookmail.com> wrote:

From: Penny Liu <invite+kr4myxk4byrx@facebookmail.com>
Subject: フェイスブックで一緒にあの頃の思い出を語ろう
To: doug.eaves@yahoo.com
Date: Thursday, June 3, 2010, 10:25 AM

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Penny Liuさんの情報:
友達89人
写真7枚
掲示板書き込み12件
フェイスブックで一緒にあの頃の思い出を語ろう

こんにちは、

Facebookでプロフィールを作成しましたので、ぜひ見てください。Facebookでは、写真や動画のアップロード、イベント作成などを通じて友達と交流を深めたり、ネットワークを広げたりできます。ぜひFacebookに登録して、自分のプロフィールを作ってみてください。

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Dearest Eaves, Thanks for your loooooooooong kind and meaningful mail . I am so happy to read it athough i could not understand it completely. I am so happy to know you are on facebook so that i can see your pictures. Really regret did not catch the important chance before you went to India. I hate myself and expect to meet you in near future. Liu Peng
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よろしくお願いいたします。
Penny

Facebookに登録するには、下のリンクをクリックしてください。
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=556755108&k=5ZC232V24T6G6BDAPGW6Q4YZW6BAXXZF3VEV&r
Facebookで知り合いかもしれない人
Sayaka Saito
Salgoud Samoht

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Penny Liuさんからdoug.eaves@yahoo.com宛てにFacebookへの招待が送信されました。今後この種類のメールをFacebookから受け取りたくない場合は、こちらをクリックして配信を停止してください。
Facebook所在地: 1601 S. California Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304

thanks geniuses, i'll just buy a Mac

2010-06-04T08:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Microsoftheads (aka pinheads + microencephalitics, a rare medical combination indeed), Your cogent warning and considerate placement of the hotfix (yeah, i'd give you a hotshot, if I could be assured the act wouldn't be traced to me) was a noble gesture for which I am truly grateful. Now, can you tell me why I have hundreds of patches, hotfixes, and updates for your lousy software. Why can't you guys ever get it right? Is it a case of goldbricking, since if you could actually program some software applications and an operating system that worked, you'd be out of a job? Or, do you suffer from the rare medical condition as mentioned above, which by the way is a clinical description of one who is a retard, often severely so. Either way, it would be nice if you could get it right the first time once in blue moon. So, since I'm more retarded than you about the hotfixes, patches and electromagnetic enemas you're so fond of, i'll pass on the hotfix and try to get the beasts at Godzilla to be useful. My hopes are very low since the disappointments from them occur as frequently as do the fuck-ups from your fine company. Google? hahahaha. They don't even have an internet address by which to contact them, which makes sense the only humanoids are the faggy guys who created the company. the rest of the operation is run by robots and the terminal geeky whose only goal in life is to create software that will allow them to masturbate as they think up arcane algorithms at the same time. The only explicit address I got for Google was a Street address in San Francisco. Yeah, they have a great respect for their customers, don't they? We become what we hate, so those monkeys' trite slogan of 'do no evil' is exactly the opposite of what they have become: evil motherfuckers who ought to be castrated so they don't pass on their twisted genes to another generation. As for Microsoft, I do respect the fact that you answer my messages personally, although your replies are useless, they are at least politely written. So, maybe you care enough about the misery you cause others to give them the illusion that your effort is sincere. It's not, or you would have gotten it right the first time. In other words, you've got the ethics of Michael Jackson's plastic surgeon and the prolific prescription writing ability of Dr. George Nichopolous, personal doctor of the late Elvis Aron Presley. But at least those guys did what they were paid to do, which was to kill their patients. The coward's approach to suicide. So, please wrap your disoriented minds around the issue of ever present incompetence of the employees of your company. And try to see if you can get one application to work without fucking up after intstallation. I know it would be a challenging task for one of normal intelligence, so for you and your colleague suffering from the unfortunate brain diseases mentioned above, well, good luck, and leave me the fuck alone. I do better fixing your shoddy products than you do. Now go back to work and fuck up some other useless application you're working on so can keep the misery coming. But, thanks for the message. And don't forget to shove the the hotfix up your ass, OK?

Kindly yours,
Salgoud Samoht, Emissary Ex Officio
ICUUCME International
Nuku'Alofa, Kingdom of Tonga

On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 1:05 AM, <hotfix@microsoft.com> wrote:

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

For your convenience, we put the hotfix that you requested on an HTTP site. You can download the hotfix from this site without us filling up your e-mail inbox.

WARNING This hotfix has not undergone full testing. Therefore, it is intended only for systems or computers that are experiencing the exact problem that is described in the one or more Microsoft Knowledge Base articles that are listed in "KB Article Numbers" field in the table at the end of this e-mail message. If you are not sure whether any special compatibility or installation issues are associated with this hotfix, we encourage you to wait for the next service pack release. The service pack will include a fully tested version of this fix. We understand that it can be difficult to determine whether any compatibility or installation issues are associated with a hotfix. If you want confirmation that this hotfix addresses your specific problem, or if you want to confirm whether any special compatibility or installation issues are associated with this hotfix, support professionals in Customer Support Services can help you with that. For information about how to contact support, copy the following link and then past it into your Web browser:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/

For additional support options, please copy the following link and then paste it into your Web browser:

http://support.microsoft.com/

Before you install this hotfix
------------------------------

If you decide to install this hotfix, please note the following items:

Do not deploy a hotfix in a production environment without first testing the hotfix.

Back up the system or the computer that will receive the hotfix before you install the hotfix.

Additional hotfix information
-----------------------------

This hotfix package uses a password. Therefore, you must enter for each package the password that we included in this e-mail message. To make sure that you enter the correct password, we recommend that you highlight, copy, and then paste the password from this e-mail message when you are prompted. If you do not enter the correct password, you cannot install the hotfix.

NOTE Passwords are set to expire every seven days. Download the package within the next seven days to make sure that you can extract the files. If there are fewer than seven days left in the password change cycle when you receive this e-mail message, you receive two passwords. If this is the case, use the first password if you download the hotfix package before the date in the "Password Changes On" field that is listed in the table at the end of this e-mail message. Use the second password if you download the hotfix package after the date in the "Password Changes On" field.

NOTE For your convenience, we send the hotfix location to you in a hyperlink. To connect to this hotfix location, you can click the hyperlink in the "Location" field that is listed in the table at the end of this e-mail message to have your Web browser open that location. However, sometimes e-mail program settings disable hyperlinks. If the hyperlink in this e-mail message is disabled, please copy the hyperlink in the "Location" field and then past it into the address box of your Web browser. Make sure that you include the exact text (without spaces) between the parentheses in the http:// address.

Package:
-----------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
KB Article Number(s): 814129
Language: English
Platform: i386
Location: (http://hotfixv4.microsoft.com/Windows%20Media%209/nosp/PKGWMLegacy_124871/9.0.0.3000/free/142410_ENU_i386_zip.exe)
Password: i!N+5xMa

NOTE Make sure that you include all the text between "(" and ")" when you visit this hotfix location.

Bread, Circuses, and Ms. Busa's non-Naked Breast

2010-06-02T23:22:00.001-07:00

Dear Nazaronians,

Namaste, or Assalamu Alaikum, or Halloo. It is very interesting how your site keeps the masses informed of the truly important events occurring daily in Bharat. Who knew Ms. Basu had worn skimpy clothing? My my, now that's some news with which to start the day. I realize that the ongoing struggle for justice by freedom fighters in various parts of the northeast, who are moving southwest it appears because there is obviously support for their cause, is not part of your 'market.' But violence is just as cool as sex, so where's your balance?

What is their cause? The same as any other group that happens to be disgusted with the needless ongoing injustices by societies that feel an american-style capitalist faux democratic social system leads to increasing misery for a very large part of the population while the well-connected, beautiful, lucky, ambitious and/or born wealthy can fritter away their time in wholesome pursuits like gawking at clothed Bollywood females. Anyway, you've got trouble brewing in this country and it will make the Bolsheviks' escapades in 1917 or the People's Revolutionary Army's victory in 1949 seem like a Sunday picnic at Sister Mary's English School for lucky kids with rich parents. The fact that 40% of your population is working 16 hours a day to make nearly enough to live on gives the Maoists a bit of leverage.

People know that India has more billionaires than any other country. Is this something of which to be proud? I don't think so. It just says that your government has a system of taxation that allows people to become richer than Midas while nearly half the population can go to hell. Amerika Uber Alles!

Having been born and raised in the usa and having lived in Japan for the 13 past years, I can tell you that the direction your country is headed is not one that inspires much hope in me. For one thing, the poverty here eclipses any that could found in the usa,, except the part where i grew up around the cotton plantations along the Mississippi River. The poor in Japan, except for the unfortunate homeless, would be comfortably middle class here.

In other words, you've got a serious problem with the distribution of basic social and economic needs in your country. And I don't see politicians doing anything but fiddling as Rome burns. It pains me due to my hatred of injustice, but also because i love this country and i had planned to retire here (i'm 50 yrs old, but got lucky in life, although I grew up poor, so i can retire at a relatively young age).

Anyway, i'm sure this missive will fall on deaf ears since you are the ones who benefit from the status quo, so change could only lower your own prospects. No one wants that. Or, if they do, it's because they had a change of heart and decided that some of the needless inequality in this country could be lessened with a bit more progressive income tax. But that would mean the rich people who support the majority of politicians might get a little irritated at such an impudent move. And so the downward spiral continues for 300 or 400 million people. More than the entire population of the usa. 350 million angry citizens who want substantive change to lessen their misery is not something a wealthy Indian would like to contemplate. So, I'm sure your blueprint for a successful website will work well for you. For the time being. But it might do you some good to cover your vulnerabilities. In other words, add a little bit of intelligent social commentary, other than a publicity release by Ms. Rai's agent and the PR firm they employ, which simply emphasizes the superficiality and uselessness of your efforts. You can do better. And I can show you how.

I'm aware that the tenets of karma and dharma and the transmigration of souls (re-incarnation?) explains why the society has these inequalities. The poor beggar on the corner kicked a cow in the ass in the past life and so he's getting the punishment he deserves. Well, that's fine to have faith, i guess, but it certainly doesn't fit too well in a society that claims be modernizing. It just becomes another tactic of power and control over the poor and dispossessed, and highlights how clueless you are about the social more`s and practices in genuinely modern and advanced societies like the usa and japan. Forget Europe, their will be in their fortress and slowly slip back to being the cesspool of the world as they were 1000 years ago (again, the demographics tell the story, but their inability to accept Others is their real Achilles' Heel, so they deserve what they get).

Again, I'll admit that i'm ignorant about the under-lying meainng of the super-structural apparatuses that display the culture of this great nation. But i do know about the usa and japan, from living in those places for 37 years and 13 years respectively, and the impression i get of the artifice and superficiality of the 'modern' culture here is that it resembles what has been in happening in the usa and Japan for the past 30 and 20 years, respectively. Bread and circuses in other words.

Especially disturbing for me though, is that the militaristic jingoism I read from certain writers and politicians here is painfully reminiscent of similar propaganda I read during my 37 years in the usa. If the usa doesn't have an 'enemy' many more of its people will understand that their own government is their worst enemy. So, in my life, from Cuba to Vietnam to the overthrow of the democratically elected Allenda government to the sponsor of state and non-state terrorists in Angola, Somalia, Israel, Chile, Paraguay, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Philippines, assassination attempts against the poet philosopher king Colonel Qadaffi while murdering some of his family members, the demonization of Islam (i have no 'religion' other than sociology, which means that empirical verification of facts is my religion), murdering Iranians on a passenger jet, support for the Mujahiddeen in Pakistan against the Soviet invaders in Afghanistan, to Grenada, to the ugly war against the freely elected Sandinistas, to support for Mr. Hussein against arch-enemy Iran, to the invasion of Panama and incarceration of 'their man' Noriega, to Gulf War I, to bombing a medical products factory in Sudan, to starving and bombing the Iraqi people for fun and sport in the 90s, to the failed missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, to the current demonization of Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Amadinejad, and these are just the public atrocities the usa has committed: who knows how many other incidents in which their 15 intelligence agencies have mischievously been involved?

What's the point? The point is that India has incredible leverage over the usa now, but ignores it (the demographics tell the story). So, here's a country with one of the world's great civilizations, and it wants to emulate a failed experiment in colonizing a continent inhabited by Natives and then instituting slavery as the source of labor for its exports. This early history combined with the contemporary history does not paint a picture of a nation that should be emulated, but one that should be held at arm's length, and let's hope you have very very long arms.

OK, that's about it, except if you want to be really modern and cool like the usa and japan, you've got to show naked breasts of beautiful women. Otherwise, you just give the impression that you're a modern wannabe, but ultimately clueless about the amoral and economic social forces that lead to modern 'success.' in the meantime, keep up the good work so the revolution doesn't happen while I'm here. I'm too old to be dodging bullets. thank you for your time and consideration.
Kindly yours,
Salgoud Samoht, Chairman Ex Officio
ICUUCME International

Re: フェイスブックで一緒にあの頃の思い出を語ろう

2010-06-02T21:10:00.001-07:00

Dear Penny Liu Peng, Please don't hate yourself. I hate myself and it does nothing but cause me grief and misery. It's not worth it. Just accept who you are because there's not a lot we can do about our personalities after we are 3 or 4 years old. Well, if you have a serious head injury, your personality can change. Or, if you join a cult and let them brainwash you (different kind of brainwashing than what we get from newspapers or the nightly news of mass media or the intellectual handcuffs that our professors clamp on us at the higher levels of graduate school, such as working on a PhD that you don't want to do with people you don't like in a place where you don't want to be, so i moved to japan, thanks to my dear (ex?) wife's nationality and family home being in tokyo; my roller coaster life is just too much for me sometimes and i want to crawl under a rock for 300 years). I'll be back in September. I got no choice. My visa for India expires then. I could go to Tunisia or Morocco, but I really miss my girlfriend a lot and each day want to fly back to Japan wrap my arms around her and forget about everything. But I can't because i got a problem, over the past 8 or 9 years in Japan I learned to read kana. i've enjoyed recreational drugs since i was 14 years old (i'm goddamnit, we start young over there). When i realized that they sold OTC (no prescription necessary, just look like a distinguished middle-aged professional with nice clothes and a designer brand necktie, and no questions are ever asked. my favorite drugs are opiates, those which come from the poppy, you know opium, the shit that those disgusting british forced to import into China about 150 years ago increasing social problems by geometrical proportions and helping the last dynasty disintegrate faster than what would have happened anyway). Well, when i learned that i could buy my favorite drug just like buying ice cream at a convenience store, i was quite pleased. so, i started taking some pills each day. Just a few to make me feel a bit better at night. Over the years, my 'schedule' changed so that I would take some in the afternoon, then i started to take some in late morning and by about 3 years ago i was having them for breakfast and taking them throughout the day. A few months or maybe a year ago, i realized i was out of control (it's funny, but my professional performance actually improved, and this has been documented by scientific studies, that in moderate doses, opiates improve concentration, social skills, and sense of well-being, which of course, makes us happier, thus, we are nicer to people, so the world is a better place; besides you don't get sick because the alkaloid extracted from the opium poppy changes our metabolism and things like colds and the flu can't survive that unusual metabolism; oh, and sorry for the difficulty of my writing, but one of the main reasons i left Japan that only you and my girlfriend know, is that i knew i wouldn't be able to kick the habit in japan, since japan is one of the reasons i said 'what the hell, i might take this stuff all the time since i don't want to be in japan anymore but i got no other place to and i can 'medicine' that makes me feel it's not so bad here after all, and it wasn't except i got terrible headaches from the horrible weather on those rocks off the coast of the asia continent; i've got a theory about how the 'japanese' got to those islands: in prehistoric times when there were many tribes running around central asia, the japanese were the most obnoxious and weird of all the tribes, and one of the weakest as well, so the other tribes just kicked their asses and said get off our continent goddamnit and don't come back, they stronger Han and Mongols put them on little boats and said 'don't come back because we never really liked you anyway, and they landed on the volcanic mountains about 120 km off the coast of Korea and they've just been getting weirder and weirder since that time 5 oer 6000 thousand or 7 thousand years ago when those from central asia landed there and started hassling and bothering the natives (Ainu); fortunately boats from polynesia and southeast asia occasionally landed on those shores and helped to make those 'pure' japanese a little more normal, and even more fortunately, the gracious Han Chinese came to Japan and civilized them 2000 or so years ago, but told them, don't call us, we'll call you; and that's how japan was settled and became the country and culture we know today; it was purely an accident because they were just too strange to be allowed to stay on the asian continent).

Sorry my imagination runs wild sometimes especially when my body and mind are very upset that i'm depriving them of part of their regular diet for the past 9 years, and i'm 50 now penny and i could see that i was beginning to get some negative health reactions from use, which by 4 or 5 years ago, had turned into abuse. so the time you knew me i was beginning to take my favorite drug all day long every day. Who knew? No one. That's the beauty of it, and also it's fatal aspect. Since i took (take, i've cut back by 65% since i left tokyo, but it's been difficult, and i'm not young so my body feels like hell most of the time and my attitude is not so bright, in fact it is very very dark, since i know i can feel fine if i take the amount my body wants but i'm tired of the hassle of buying the stuff and taking it because it's not natural and it's not right, not in legal or social sense, which i don't care about anyway, but in an existential sense, meaning when i'm on drugs, i'm not really myself, unless i want to just be a drug addict forever, which probably wouldn't be so long since my tolerance reached an unsustainable level on the mild narcotic i could get OTC (over the counter at kusuriya in japan) and the only alternative would be to move up to the next level, such as morphine or heroin. I did heroin a few times when i lived in Seattle and worked in a factory. it was great, but i didn't have the time, money, nor desire to be a junky because at that time i was ready to quit my job and do something with my life by going to graduate school, which i did with the kindness and help from some very good people at the university in my hometown, 4500 km from Seattle, maybe the distance from Shenyang to Chengdu, or something like that (was I right about Shenyang being your hometown? I don't know this question keeps coming up but i've had many students from shenyang and they have been many of my favorite and most memorable students; i do not know why this, and if you're not from Shenyang it doesn't matter anyway because i like you wherever you come from because you're such an open sweet honest sincere kind intelligent and lovely woman; i wouldn't be spilling my heart out to you if i thought otherwise; but, please don't worry because i'm really OK now, just a little sick now, and i'll be fine when i return to japan in september).

Oh, my facebook name is Salgoud Samoht (my first and middle names spelled backwards, kind of) and as you can see by the writing above, there are things i write that i do post on my blog and on website comment sections that i don't want associated with my real name, for obvious reasons. Back to India. It's pretty nice here and fortunately I haven't met people who sell 'brown sugar' (low grade heroin that is smoked, which i've never done because we got China White when i was in Seattle 25 years ago). OK, Penny, thanks for your message and i hope you will continue to be my friend because i need friends now more than ever, and as you could surely tell by the editing and proofreading work on your paper, the drugs I was taking at the time I did that had no effect on my mental clarity and powers of reasoning. they just make me feel a little better and don't let my emotions go crazy as they have done on occasion in the past when unmedicated, but i'm old now, and i should be able to handle life without dope. One would think anyway. Talk with you later sweetheart and take care.
kindly yours,
doug eaves
p.s. this has not been proofread nor edited so please forgive the many mistakes in my writing, OK? i would give your writing much more respect than i give my own.

2010/6/3 Penny Liu <invite+zj4oys0_y_oc@facebookmail.com>

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Penny Liuさんの情報:
友達89人
写真7枚
掲示板書き込み12件

フェイスブックで一緒にあの頃の思い出を語ろう

こんにちは、

Facebookでプロフィールを作成しましたので、ぜひ見てください。Facebookでは、写真や動画のアップロード、イベント作成などを通じて友達と交流を深めたり、ネットワークを広げたりできます。ぜひFacebookに登録して、自分のプロフィールを作ってみてください。

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Dearest Eaves, Thanks for your loooooooooong kind and meaningful mail . I am so happy to read it athough i could not understand it completely. I am so happy to know you are on facebook so that i can see your pictures. Really regret did not catch the important chance before you went to India. I hate myself and expect to meet you in near future. Liu Peng
----------

よろしくお願いいたします。
Penny

Facebookに登録するには、下のリンクをクリックしてください。
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=556755108&k=5ZC232V24T6G6BDAPE6ZPTQTQ6BAXXZF3VEY&r
Facebookで知り合いかもしれない人

Mikael Tenhunen
Salgoud Samoht
Linda Li

Heather C. McLeish

すでにアカウントをお持ちの方は、こちらからこのメールアドレスをアカウントに登録できます。

Penny Liuさんからdoug.eaves@gmail.com宛てにFacebookへの招待が送信されました。今後この種類のメールをFacebookから受け取りたくない場合は、こちらをクリックして配信を停止してください。
Facebook所在地: 1601 S. California Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304

Greetings from Bengaluru, Mr. Edwards

2010-06-02T09:52:00.001-07:00

Dear Mr. Edwards, I hope you are enjoying a well-deserved break and having some fun, although it seems like you have a pretty good time doing your job, which is great. But how you can produce so much writing of such high quality makes me think you must work 25 hours a day, or you're just really bright efficient, and have three keyboard operators (is typist obsolete now?) working for you.

Over two months have passed since I arrived in India. It's great here, for me anyway, which means most Americans would hate it, and a lot of Indians don't care for it either. I've only spoken to one non-Indian since I arrived. A young German guy who was at the hotel where I'm living wanted to go online and my laptop is the only computer here with a reliable Internet connection. So, I chatted with him for about 5 minutes. He didn't seem to care much for his experience here, which is understandable if you don't know the most important principle for residing in India: 'kindly adjust a little.' Few Indian people have computers, since they are out of their price range. The mobile phone is used for telecommunications, not email. And it's impossible for a tourist to get an internet connection here, because you must produce a rental agreement of a year's duration. That's impossible for most people on a 6 month tourist visa. But I tip very generously, so the manager at the hotel where I'm staying in Bengaluru (Bangalore, yeah I had no idea either until I saw a little ad that said 'Bangalore' in the Bengaluru Yellow Pages that I stole from the last hotel where I stayed in Jodhpur; the reason I'm here is because I had no way to get information about other Indian cities and was tired of the 120 degree F heat in Rajasthan; they are not 'wired' in Jodhpur, so I swiped that hotel's copy of the Bengaluru Yellow Pages and came here; needless to say, there is no itinerary because I needed a new challenge; I got one).

In regard to the Chad and Ranjit ads, I can't comment about the content since I haven't seen one, but I can give you a little insight about why Indian and Indian-Americans wouldn't be too offended by it. India is still a de facto caste society. In other words, people are born into their stations in life. It has a little more flexibility than a slave society, but not much. So, the guys who clean the floor and bathroom in my hotel room are dalits (I forget the new word for that, but the old one was 'untouchables') who are outside of the caste system. In other words they don't 'belong' in Indian society, as do the four main castes (varnas) of brahmins (priests, teachers) kshatriya (warriors, kings), vaishyas (agriculturalists, traders) and shudras (service providers, artisans). The dalits do the dirty work, then and now. Although India has (had?) a Dalit president, a ceremonial position, the overt discrimination of those minority group members was outlawed decades ago. However, you don't change a 3000 year old culture by passing a law. So, I can tell you who the Dalits are, but I'm not sure about the actual positions of the other castes in modern society here, since the system has always been somewhat flexible for inter-caste marriage between Hindus, who comprise 80% of the population. And the 20% non-Hindu Indians and foreigners don't fit into the proper caste system either, so you have a very complex society that has archaic rules, followed to the letter by some and ignored by others (I know this because I did a little research before coming here by ignorantly joining an Indian matrimonial website under the name of my alter-ego for my own ulterior motive of getting information; it was really stupid of me, because marriage is the most important event in the life of Indians, so my karma is in for some rough times I'm afraid).

The caste system predates class societies by a couple of thousands of years, but like any social system, it must have enough flexibility to meet the needs of a society as it changes. If not, you get a revolution from above a la Japan and the Meiji Restoration in 1868 or a revolution from below such as Bolsheviks in 1917 in Russia. In any case, it's an ancient social system here. Its brilliance lies in the fact that it has 'answers' for the inequities and injustices faced by the unfortunate, as well as for the favor of the fortunate: 'you were evil in your former life so now you're a Dalit, or you followed your dharma perfectly in a previous life, so now you are a cow (I was chastised two days ago for letting a cow turn a corner in front of me the other day, although I had the right of way; seriously, cows are a common sight in the older poorer sections of 'modern' Indian cities such as Jaipur, Rajasthan and Bangalore, Karnataka, and they represent a former life above reproach, so they are better than human beings; seriously).

I don't see tourists in the places where the people live and work, which are locales where I reside, nor do I see NRIs (non-resident Indians, who are the new elite in the wealthy areas of modern Indian cities, since they are very rich by Indian standards, even if they were making only 60K a year in Silicon Valley), so the information about India written by someone by like Shashi Tharoor or a travel writer for Lonely Planet has no idea what life is like for most Indians because they belong to a different part of the society. After all, no one wants to step in cow shit while wearing a pair of $200 loafers.

This is a huge society, so many Indians would have no idea what life is like on the 'wrong side of the tracks,' much less what life is like in a state that is 2000 km away. There are really many societies here as I noticed after comparing my month in Rajasthan (NW India) with my month, so far, in Karnataka (S India). The biggest differences I've found so far are that the people in Rajasthan are very impoverished and are much more tolerant about Muslims and have favorable opinions about Pakistan,whether they are Muslim or Hindu, than is the case here in Karnataka where the people are a bit less destitute, but still poor by American standards. And I've heard two highly educated and intelligent Hindus here in Bangalore say "I hate Muslims" as though it were a perfectly natural response to the Other. I keep my mouth shut and listen, since I'm ignorant about this vast expanse of humanity.

And it is a huge meta-society of 1.1 billion people comprising the most diverse population in the world. I have nearly 4 months remaining on my tourist visa and will probably stay through its duration. It's very inexpensive here, the people are good to me and there is convenient shopping and multi-ethnic restaurants nearby. After 5 weeks of Indian food everyday, I got a little tired of it. At the same time, a family of microbes moved into my GI and the spices and rich sauces irritate them which gives me problems, so I'm eating bland food I prepare in my room. The trip to the hospital cost $2.80 for consultation, examination, and medication. The doctor and 5 or 6 nurses and assistants were more knowledgeable and considerate than any health care I ever received in the usa. I didn't take the medication though because I'd prefer to heal naturally. The doctor assured me it's not life-theatening, or even very serious, and one of the medicines is called Gut-Plug, which sounds like a permanent sealant against bowel movements. That disturbs me much more than loose movements (sorry for the graphic description but life is very real here: I saw in huge black letters written all along a wall of a Heritage church here, "Do Not Urinate Here." How more 'real' can you get than that?).

OK, sorry for wasting your time on your holiday with my long message, but I wanted to let you know how much I respect your integrity, intelligence, and tolerance. As I've said before, you are the epitome of a professional journalist, and I really enjoy reading your articles (how do you write so many quality pieces in such a short amount of time? you don't sleep, do you?). One little clarification about shish-kebab. You are right that it is of Arab origin, but it has been in South India for 1200 years, ever since the first Arab traders settled in Kerala and made their way over the Western Ghats and into Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Also, Chad and Ranjit, as you correctly noted, are American stereotypes based on racist attitudes about Indians. Because of the hundreds of people I've met, only one could upload a simple software application for a computer, and it took him two tries. About a third of the people I've met and talked with are illiterate, which is about the average for India, although it varies greatly from state to state (I can tell because I often ask them to read something for me that is written in Hindi or Kannada; they find someone who can read; even if they are fairly fluent in English, they still may be illiterate; it's a very interesting place).

Two young guys who sold me a SIM for my mobile phone in Jodhpur would make great characters representing the modern suave and sophisticated 'new generation.' They spoke excellent English, much better than I do (my southern heritage is re-asserting itself in my accent as I age), but they didn't have a clue about how to install the Vodaphone world calling card program they sold me. I didn't want it in the first place since long distance calls are already cheap, but they were very smooth, and I bought it. I went back to my hotel and couldn't even call reception. I returned the next day livid, chastising them for taking advantage of an ignorant old foreigner and demanded they remove that program and just give me the regular pre-paid plan that I had been using. They calmly and politely talked non-stop about how they would fix it immediately and that it's really not so complicated. I hurled a few expletives at them, but they were unfazed and continued to calmly explain how the system works and that it's a great bargain and I'll be really pleased with it. They won. I was amazed at their composure, persuasiveness, politeness, and genuine sincerity in their desire to help me. The program has never really worked properly, and it only works if I call the usa. They had told me they could configure it so I could use it to call Japan, the destination of most of my calls where my wife and girlfriend live. But those two guys were simply amazing in handling an old guy who was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. They impressed me so much that I didn't even hassle them after they slightly bungled the re-configuration during my second trip to the Vodaphone shop. I can call overseas or domestically and that's all I need it for anyway. These guys were not geeks, nerds, or any other of the other stereotypes usually associated with Indians in the IT and telecom fields. Their main concern was which Indian beauty they would romance that evening. And I really couldn't blame them for that either.

All right Mr. Edwards, thanks again for your professionalism, profound insight, and prodigious work. It is greatly appreciated. Hope you have a nice restful vacation, or a wild and risky one, if that happens to be your plan. Take care.
Kindly yours,
doug eaves

Note: the caste system is not a set of religious laws, but many people follow the arcane tenets as though they were an inalienable part of the Hindu religion since the concepts of dharma (duties) and karma (chance? consequences?) are a bit mysterious to me since they're not part of a logical system, but one based on faith. They still hold a powerful influence on the worldviews of many, if not most, Indians, modern and traditional, whom I've met and talked with over the past couple of months. With re-incarnation as the ultimate 'threat' sustaining the concepts of karma and dharma, it's a perfect system of social control for those who have no qualms about accepting tautologies as fact. Over thousands of years the social and religious aspects of varnas (castes) and jatis (sub-castes) have become preposterously complex, but it's India, kindly adjust a little.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_caste_system

thank you for the affirmation sir

2010-05-29T03:43:00.001-07:00

Dear Mr. Roeder, It is very gracious and generous of you to post a positive response to my tirade. I'm so used to getting hate mail that when the occasional positive response occurs, it makes me feel like maybe I'm not so crazy after all, at least not in a clinical sense. I've been in India for two months now and said hello to a backpacker and let a young traveler use my computer the other day here at the business hotel that will be home for another 3 months. That's been my contact with other westerners. It's been nice. Maybe I was born in the wrong country.

I'm in Bangalore. The reason for that borders on the farcical. I was in Rajasthan for a month and the 120 degree F temperature started to be a bit much to bear. Internet connections were unavailable in the hotels, so at the last one in Jodhpur where I stayed, I stole their copy of the Yellow Pages for Begaluru. I didn't know where Bengaluru was until I saw a little ad that said 'Bangalore' on the back cover. So I thought, OK, that's where I'll go.

Due to all the corporate IT campuses here, I was hesitant to come. But this is a big city and that area is about 15 km from where I am. So, I'm in the 'old India' of which about 98% of the places I've seen here, and in Rajasthan, could be categorized. Yes, cows really do have the right of way. Always. If you want to eat beef, you've got to go to Pakistan. If you want pork, you have to go to Myanmar. But a lamb bolognese sauce here was one of the most delicious I've ever eaten.

As for health care, a family of bacteria moved into my intestine three weeks ago and I went to the hospital. After a 15 minute wait, a doctor who spoke excellent English examined me, actually listened to my own diagnosis, and then prescribed some medication. The consultation, examinatinon and medication cost 160 rupees (~$3.30). I was in and out of the hospital in 30 minutes. And the bacteria family vacated the premises within 2 days. Could you imagine that occurring in the usa? I can't, and my 85 year old mother was astounded because about half of her pension goes to the health care industry in the usa. Anyway, thanks again for your support and I greatly admire your courage and intelligence for speaking out in favor of an obviously unpopular position. take care my friend and best wishes to you and yours. kindly yours, doug eaves

lily, how kind of you

2010-05-22T11:39:00.001-07:00

dear noreply,

it seems the brilliant programmers at microsoft have not perfected the cybenetic translation from Chinese into English. after clicking on the automatic translation, the translation looked exactly like the original. in other words, there was no translation, so i still see many Chinese characters, very few of which I know. very very few. i avoided them in Japan

since it was too depressing to forget those learned as quickly as new ones occupied the memory for about 2 weeks until the next group . . . and so I didn't have have much interest in being depressed because my memory for intricate symbols is not so great because it's familiar with alphabets, a brilliant system of writing that was invented by the phoenicians about 3500 years ago. It's at least 1,500 years younger than the system of Chinese writing, as is any writing in which an alphabet, phonetic or otherwise, is used. Vietnamese is an excellent example. I could communicate in writting Vietnamese within a month of studying it. the fact that the grammar is relatively simple made it possible, but the use of the roman alphabet made it instantly accessible. Communication that fails to reach a receiver is useless. even smart people like me can't understand an internet message that is in
Chinese and the american software for tranlsating software into Chinese is unavailable right now. I don't know why.

i am in India traveling around. After getting a fortuitous divorce settlement from my wife, I decided to retire from my job. the week after the graduation ceremony, i told the 2 top staff at my school that i was retiring and then handed in my resignation a few days later. the chairman has finally gone off the deep end and life is too short to let ignorant people waste your time. of course, finding a way to make money without having to listen to idiots give orders can be difficult. so, i consider myself very lucky to have retired before reaching 50. of course i'll have to die by the time i'm 60, or i'll need to start working again, but I'll take those odds. the worst thing would be whlle working for borderline psychotics, you die. one of our teachers died last summer and he was just a few years older than me and i thought, 'if i died while working for the people who own this college, it would put me in some sort of purgatory, i'm sure. i wouldn't be lucky enough for an absence of existence.

well if this reaches you, it's because the address bar gave your email address. it's not too difficult to figure out the part of the address after @ since that's where the message came from and perhaps you've got an email address with them. of course i'm likely to be wrong because i avoid them. it's more fun to meet accidentally through comments written about some article or opinion on a website. but it's a wide open space, for those who can easily get an internet connection, which is much less than half the world's population.

OK, hope all is well with you. Bengaluru (formerly, Bangalore)is a nice place. The people are friendly, and very open to conversation. Many speak English well enough to have limited conversations, since my kannada vocabulary consists of one word, 'shukuruwadya' or something like that. I don't read their alphabet either, but much English is used in the city so it's no problem. Much easier than Tokyo or Seoul. See you later. When is the best time in Beijing? yours kindly, salgoud samoht

Thu, 5/13/10, lily <noreply@netlogmail.com> wrote:

From: lily <noreply@netlogmail.com>
Subject: 通知： lily 想和你在 Netlog 上交朋友
To: doug.eaves@yahoo.com
Date: Thursday, May 13, 2010, 5:10 PM

通知： lily 想和你在 Netlog 上交朋友
嗨,

在2010年四月20日（星期二），你被盛情邀请加入到Netlog网站，这是一个在欧洲拥有上千万年轻用户群的大型社交网络。

来自lily的邀请函
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thank you for your messages and sorry for the long delay in reply

2010-05-03T11:52:00.001-07:00

Dear Yang Hui Ying,

Thank you very much for your messages. They made my day when I received them. It's nice to know that you have kind thoughts for me. The feeling is mutual. I hope to keep from falling behind in replying to emails. While in Rajasthan for a month, I was only on line for 4 days. There were many urgent matters that had to be attended to in just a few hours on those days, but I did write the message below to you on April 9. However, I didn't send it because at the time, I had not disclosed my location to anyone except my girlfriend. The message has been edited so that certain matters that are no longer important have been deleted. I've sent it to Cheung Chin Pang as well since I'm not sure how long of a message docomo can process, if the address I have for you is for your keitai. I thought I saw a yahoo address for you, but my mind is not always as accurate I like to think it is.

Although I finally got a keitai with a screen, I'm still not sure how it works, except for making phone calls, which is all I need it for anyway. But right now I can only call the usa since I'm on the WCC plan that two smooth talkers in Jodhpur insisted would be a good deal, but I'll probably lose about 1800 rupees (around 3700 yen) when I have to get a local SIM here in Karnataka state, because all the different states in India have different mobile systems. Either that, or they know they can rip off an ignorant foreigner.

It's not really that bad though because for every merchant/thief and hotel staff/con artist, there are 50 people who are really kind and honest. I just like to focus on the negative things because it's more fun to write nasty comments and insult people than to say what a great place it is and everyone is wonderful. And it really is pretty nice here, although after 5 weeks of Indian food everyday, my stomach is complaining and is still angry about the food poisoning last week that had me in bed all day moaning and wishing I were dead. But I got over it in about 18 hours, I think, unless it is still feeling funny because of little bacteria who have found a new home there. In any case, I'm learning things everyday, and that was another point of traveling around. I needed to have some new challenges.

I talked to Cheung Chin Pang a few days after I wrote it and explained to him most of the immediate circumstances regarding my sudden disappearance, and he already knew many of the other factors that had been pushing me to leave Japan for a while since last August. Anyway, I think you two are friends, so maybe he's told you much of the background information, if it's of any interest. He's a good friend of mine and really helped me a lot last year by listening to me complain about all the weird things going on in my life.

Visiting my mother and brother are an important reason why I retired, since I want to spend some time with them before it's too late. But I also want to do it when I feel like it. And right now I feel like doing nothing as I wander around in India. I've been in Bangalore for a week now. The Rajasthan and desert were great for a month, but it is summer there and although the dry atmosphere, the temperature goes up to around 50 in the daytime, which is actually more comfortable to me than outside in Tokyo in August, since there is no humidity in the desert. However, I feel even better here in the tropics where each day is like the other. It may rain or be sunny, but it's always warm and pretty humid, but it's not a heat island like Tokyo. It's amazing the difference what the difference of a few million cars, trucks and air conditioners, pavement, and skyscrapers can make in a localized climate. The cold rain in Japan though was really giving me problems, especially when followed by fine sunny day. My body just couldn't adjust to those changes and it gave me awful headaches.

Anyway, it is nice being here, but I'll probably go to a few other places before I leave India. Many people have said that Kerala is the best place to see, and these were real people, not marketers for the Kerala Tourism Agency. So, I'll probably fly down to Trivandrum in a week or 3 and move up the coast as the monsoon diminishes (I guess it has started there and will finish in June, but I only prepared for going to Pune (Poona) about 3 hours SE of Mumbai (Bombay), but decided to go to Rajasthan instead. The desert seemed like a better idea. There's no plan, so I can't really say where I'll be in a week or so, but I hope I have Internet access, since it was really inconvenient not having it in Rajasthan.

I might stay here in Bangalore for a while (Bengaluru; they've replaced most of the Anglicized names of Indian cities with their original names, so it's kind of confusing if one isn't aware of a change; before I came here, I had no idea where Bengaluru was, but saw Bangalore on the Bengaluru Yellow Pages that I took from the office at the last hotel where I stayed in Jodhpur, maybe they won't miss it, but I was desperate since they said they had Internet access, but it wasn't functioning properly, so I took the phone book and decided to come here: that's how I'm making my decisions, steal a phone book and go see the place; not exactly a good plan for travel, but it seems to work for me). It's 3000 km south of where I was. The flight was really easy, although I had to change planes in Mumbai. I was worried that the airport might be as scary as the one in Delhi, but it was very nice and modern. I don't like 'nice and modern' for hotels or neighborhoods, but for airports it is reassuring to see that there is enough traffic for them to have decent facilities.

If I decide to stay here, I'll get a cheap serviced apartment so I'm not pressured by handouts everyday from the restaurant and hotel staff. They've got hundreds of the places here and I saw one for 1500 rupees (around 3000 yen, which is cheaper than my apartment in Tokyo was, and it food is a tiny fraction of the cost of what it is in Tokyo as well as everything else, except tipping: I am spending more on tips than I am on anything else, even more than a room costs for a night, so most of the time I sit in my room and write, play a guitar, talk with my girlfriend, mother, and brother, read, try to find places where I can buy food that might not give me severe stomach problems, or just do nothing.

I also scream obscenities at the little con artist dwarf posing as service staff who wakes me up at 9 in the morning hoping I will give him some money. I tried to explain to him the principle of giving tips is that they are given as rewards for service, not for annoying harassment. He didn't understand that concept so I gave the night manager a 500 rupee tip to keep the little bastard away from my room. It was a very wise investment, although they are doing heavy construction in the room next door, so I'm woken by 9:30 when the jackhammers and chainsaws start making sounds just a little softer than a jet plane during take-off.

Oh well, I'll find another place in a day or so, but it's a really good room and really cheap too, a hard combination to find, since some of the cheap rooms I've found I couldn't force myself to stay in them for more than a night because they were genuinely disgusting, even worse than some of the places where I lived when I was younger, which is saying something.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK here's the message I wrote to you on April 9 that didn't get sent due to circumstances at the time. It's been edited and parts have been re-written to reply to your message. Sorry again for the delay. But this is India, and a bit of inconvenience can be expected. As the locals say, 'please adjust a little.' It's a really good principle by which to live I think.

Dear Happiness Baby (aka Yang Hui Ying), I know Happinessbaby, the elegant, sophisticated, and lovely Ms. Yang Hui Ying. Besides, you're one
of my favorite former students. Funny, you may be on your way home,
but I already am. I retired and left Tokyo on March 27. They were very
surprised. It was difficult telling Hashimoto-sensei and Saitoh-sensei
that i was retiring, but i don't need to work for a few years, so i'm
traveling, taking it easy as i go 'the long way to the usa by heading
west.' My mom said she'd stay alive until i get there. After 50 years
we are beginning to understand each other. But before arriving there, I needed a little time to relax and not be bothered. I'll probably get back to the usa by autumn. it's quite beautiful in parts of the usa in autumn, but it's not good enough of a reason to stay there for more than a few weeks.

Seriously, I'm on my way to visit my mom, who is 85. Since moving out
of her apartment when i was 15, we haven't spent much time together.
That was 35 years ago. my dad died 33 years ago, and my memories of
him are fading. I can't remember the last time i saw my older
brother, either 7 or 10 years ago. he's 6 years older than me and his
health is not so good and he has no money, but he's got a girlfriend
and a cat, and children and grandchildren, so he seems pretty happy.
We are very different, but we are brothers and were close when we
younger despite the age difference. Things go by so fast, you wake up
one day, and wonder who you are and where you came from. or, at least
I did. and i wasn't so sure, so i'm on my way to find out. But rather
than flying east across the pacific ocean to the usa, i decided to go
west. my mom is just happy that i'm on my way to see her. it's been
over 2 years. I told her i can be there in about 2 or 3 days if she
thinks her time is getting short, but she's probably in better shape
than my brother or me.

So far, i am traveling slowly, not on vacation or on a tour. in other
words, i didn't leave to 'see the sights' around the world, but to be in different environments, meet different people, and of course, learn. If we stop learning, we die. I forgot who said that, but it seems very true to me. I'm usually a pretty fast learner, so 13 years is the longest i've ever lived in one. lived in Tokyo without a break as long as I lived in my hometown. Of course Tokyo is much more interesting than my hometown. And I like Tokyo so I'll be back there. I never liked my hometown, but I must return because my mom didn't leave it. I encouraged her many times, but she likes it there. I never understood this, but she's always been supportive of me traveling to distant places to live. She's a wonderful woman and I want to get back to see her to let her know how much I appreciate her. I think she knows, but my actions don't really indicate it since I visit her as infrequently as possible because not only do I dislike my hometown, I don't even like going to the usa.

Anyway, I'm trying to find out how my life has had so many twists and turns and ups and downs in so few years (OK, 50 years isn't so few, but it's not really that old, is it? and the changes my life has had since i was 10 years old would make your spin, just as it does mine).

I have spent very little time considering what i want to do for the
next few years. i really enjoy writing now. Strange, because people
have always said that i can write well (i can write poorly, too; very
versatile). So, i'll write. I don't exactly know what, but just the
act of writing each day is part of the process. i post comments on
youtube about Rolling Stones videos/songs and I post comments on BNet,
a business news website. one of those comments was 'published' on a
popular blog in the usa. In over a year, it was the first time i ever
got positive reactions to my writing. my ideas are a little radical
for most white americans. But they are clueless anyway, as nearly any
person in the usa who isn't of European heritage will tell you.

But the white people have the numbers, in most states, but not all.
however they have the money, property, and positions. It's not a very
fair place, but it masquerades as a pillar of freedom and equality,
but that's just propaganda. it's not really like that. These days, I
consider myself 'post-white' meaning i don't see myself as a 'white
person' and i've never really been interested in Europe. The people
just don't look very attractive to me. Now, that's a bigoted and prejudiced view of mine, but not racist since I have no power to cause problems for them, nor benefit by saying so. It just means I have opinions about Western culture in general, and the people who are part of it that are unfavorable. Those opinions are based on generalizations that aren't completely true but they reflect my attitudes. I have some European friends who I've met online, and had one European professor whom I liked a lot (and many more that i did not like at all, but that was true for my american professors as well).

Anyway, i have made no plans. I have no schedule. i will go where i
want to go, when i want to go, unless it requires getting another
visa, which i'd rather skip for now. getting the one for India was a
bit of a pain. getting one for vietnam was very easy 2 years ago, and
i don't know about China because the company got my visa when i went
to Chongqing 3 years ago. Shanghai sounds like a great place. i really like
China, and especially Chinese people. Much easier to know and get
along with than is the case with Japanese people, at least that's been
my experience. I like Japanese people a lot, but conversation can be a
problem some times. that hasn't been the case with Chinese people i've
known.

[Cheung Chin Pang and I can sit around and talk about nothing at all for hours, and it is great. I miss our dinners together, but it was time to go.
Cheung Chin Pang, if you have any plans to come to India in the next few months, please let me know and we can get a good bite to eat. I had Pizza Hut last night, and tomorrow night I'll go out for KFC. Yes, I'm even going to break my rule about no chicken just so I can avoid eating Indian food another day. I'll probably go to Kerala state, the most southwest place on the Indian peninsula, sooner than I think since it's on the coast and they have great fish there. I dream about eating delicious fish at night. If you can't make it over here, please let me know how long you will be in Tokyo and I'll try to get over there before you leave. If you will be there in November, then we can definitely get together then, or if I miss my girlfriend so much that I can't resist returning for a while during the summer, since that's usually the best time of year for me there, just so I don't go outside in the daytime, I'd really like to get together for some good food, good talk, and good cigarettes, which cost 100 rupees for premium brands here, or about 200 yen. I sure won't quit smoking as long as I'm in India.]

Conversation is good in itself, it needs no reason. it's
meaningful to share ideas with another person, don't you think so?

OK, thanks again for thinking of me sweetheart, or Happinessbaby, or Ms. Yang Hui Ying. Please keep me posted on your journey, all right? And i'll let you know how mine's going. Internet connections can be difficult here, so if I can't reply in a timely manner, it's because I'm dealing with the 'adjustments' necessary to an extended stay on the sub-continent. And I will be back in Tokyo at least within 6 months, if not sooner. I'm looking forward to getting the photos when you get a chance to see them. Wish Lelin the best of luck with his restaurant. He'll probably do really well. Sengawa is where my wife went to school from elementary school through high school at Toho, so there will be many high school girls coming by his restaurant I'm sure. Let him know that high school girls from rich families in Tokyo are always interested in new and interesting people from far away places. He'll be a big success.
kindly yours,
doug eaves (aka salgoud, aka tom)

2010/5/1 <happiness6baby@docomo.ne.jp>

what a shame that you are retired. But you can travelling aroud world, that is sound so good, I hope you will happy and doing something that you want to do.
Any way, do you remember lelin, a Nepal boy. His restaurant are opened last week at sengawa,(take keosen from shinjyuku ) we went there, (many people went there, including chris and dave),other students were talked about you, they also felt so sorry to heard that you are retired.
Anyway, I will send photos to you, we took in lelin's restaurant.
Take care, I will miss you, and see you.

Not only are you one of the most intelligent people I've ever known, you're clairvoyant too

2010-03-13T01:29:00.001-08:00

My Dearest Penn, Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the meaning you've added to my life, as well as that to which you have provided others, forever of course, but especially for the past two years since I've known you. kun yo`o te^e ne^e narn ka^ir na~i la'iw?
yo`o te^e ne^e cho^rp ma~i? Do you like Japan? Do you like Japanese food? Do you like Japanese social norms and customs? Do you like Japanese people? Do you like to be asked trite and inane questions? OK, I just have to do that every now and then to maintain sanity, but i must say, it's no longer working. So, the allusive aspect of the word 'clairvoyant' in the subject pertains to my next occupation. Yes! Tri-shaw driver. What do you think? Do you like tri-shaw drivers? Do you like riding in tri-shaws? Do you like riding around in a tri-shaw in Tokyo while eating Japanese food and having a Japanese person ask you a million questions? You do (big smile), that's good. OK, sorry. That's enough for now, don't you think?

It may be a little early, but have you decided which field you will get your PhD in? Because if I've ever met anyone who would make a great college instructor/professor, it is you. You'll loosen up as you get more confidence (forgive me for speaking bluntly, but I turn 50 in 2 months, so I'm an old man now and can be expected to say stupid, thoughtless things with an alarming frequency) and your sharp wit, compassionate personality, intellectual dedication, and a basketful of other superb qualities that you possess will shine even brighter than they do now. Hey, that's why I have to wear the tinted glasses because your aura was blinding me. Seriously Penn, you've got so much to offer that it's only a matter of time until you get to where you're going (I realize that's kind of vague and trite, but I'm not a very sophisticated person, and it is true anyway). Really, I can tell when my students will be successful at what they want, when they decide what that is. It took me 35 years to figure out that I wanted to teach college, and it's taken me nearly 50 years to realize that I really love to write. And for correspondence, you are an ideal person, if you don't mind thousands of words of English in email messages. I've written hundreds of thousands of words over the past 3 years, very disorganized, with no theme, because they are usually either email messages, or comments to an american business news website or comments video uploads of the Rolling Stones on youtube. Yes, it's an odd combination, but I've loved the Stones since I was a kid and still do. They are the only rock band I listen, since most my time is spent listening to electronica these days (right now I'm listening to Phuket: A Hip Island, the best in relaxed chllin' beatz, the bonus unmixed disc, and in particular, Siamesa Sex Show aka El Greco performing what is a delightful number titled Siamesa Sex Show.

I had had been listening to African American jazz from between around '42 up to '67 ('42 be-bop was 'invented' - '67 John Coltrane died, may he rest in everlasting peace) by saxophone quartets or piano trios. Besides Coltrane, I love the music of Lester Young and of Bud Powell, when they played in small groups. They were two of the most influential musicians in t combos. About 10 years ago I started listening to Classical Indian music regularly, and became increasingly enamored of it, especially the late Pt. Nikhil Banerjee, may he be at one with Atman as I write, and Hariprasad Chaurasia, the Chopin of the bansuri, or wooden flute. I think Padmabhusan Banerjee was the greatest musician of the 20th century. I've never heard anyone else who could such depth of feeling in his playing while being in complete control of it as well, since to me those are two conflicting forces. How he balanced them to produce the music that he played was something unique I think. Coltrane certainly had the feeling and as technically proficient as he was, he would let his emotions take him away sometimes, which was intention, so they're kind of hard to compare. Similarly, with Hariji, the instrument he plays the bansuri, is possibly the first wind instrument that was invented, prehistorically of course, since Shiva has always had a flute when he Krishna, I think. Anyway, I love music but have no training in it although I've been playing music for 35 years. It took about 30 years before I could play what I wanted to hear. I'm a slow learner.

My memory is also not so great, because I can't remember if I asked you what your plans are for the next year or 5. I was thinking that you'll continue studying translation (and interpretation?), but I really can't remember specifically what it was. You'll do well in whatever it is, of that, I'm sure. My own career direction is diverging as well. If I may, I've pasted (I guess I can, huh?) a recent 'comment' about racism in US advertising on a BNet blog. The usa is a racist country with a racist culture, so while not all European Americans are racist, they can't help but to misunderstand the perspectives of those groups, especially African Amreicans, Latino Americans (although thatt's changing, maybe, and of course Native Americans. I'm kind of familiar with marketing and advertising since they are central to existence in the usa (there are no people, just consumers, and Japan is basically the same except the goods are superior). Anyway, I wrote a comment that got a very positive response from some African American commentators on the site and another one that made me feel really good. It's the first time I've gotten praise. I usually get a snide comment about me, or what I've written and then as I clarify and refine my comment so those who are intellectually lazy, or just stupid, I go into full attack mode as well, so that as I expound on my thesis in greater depth, I also assassinate the character of the person who insulted my point of view or me personally. I've never received a reply to one of my 'character assassinations' I guess because they've finally understood the central thesis of my comment. Or they don't want to know what another reply would sound like, but it would not be nice. I can tell when an intellectual pygmy has written a reply to my comment because their intro will be a tired cliche like 'had a bit too much coffee this morning, did we?' or 'forgot to take your meds this evening, did you?' which might have been half humorous 10 years ago, but is just tired now. So, in my reply, I'll write "I don't drink coffee, Howard." or "No I never forget my medication because I find opiates to be gifts from the gods" or something like that. And then they will have a sentence or two of criticism of what I wrote and they often don't even get the point because, they are in the usa after all, and, well I don't want to make a gross stereotype, but many americans are not exactly critical thinkers, and one could even question whether they think at all. Some just 'say and do' without thinking about it. There was a president who just finished two terms a little over a year ago who is like that and a majority of americans could easily identify with his shallow and narrow thinking, if the functions in his cerebral cortex could in fact be called 'thought.' I have my doubts. So , if you happen to be curious about the status of racial relations in the usa now that there is a president who is putatively African American, although I see more European heritage than African, my little comment addresses why things don't change in a racist culture in regard to oppression of the darker skinned members of society.

Just to preface the little piece I wrote, the journalist of the article/blogpost criticized a woman for calling an advertisement 'racist, although she actually didn't. I entered the fray when I read the journalist's post and thought it rather harsh, ignorant, and arrogant, although I was civil in my word choices. I've got the main postings below in chronological order, more or less, as well as the links to those pages below. I haven't cleaned up my own blog in more ways than one in quite a while, but it doesn't matter because I never get any visitors, so I just use it some times to store my writing, correspondence, and random disorganized thoughts. It needs to be cleaned up in a couple of It's disorganized and has more than a few profanities and obscenities a style of communication learned at an early age, but discarded when realizing that people use those words because they just don't know any other words or they're intellectually lazy. I blame teevee., the worst invention after the nuclear bomb that has formed and been realized by the dazzling brilliance of human ingenuity. OK, enough whining, now for the good part

If the pasted parts below were too much for your server or whatever, here's the link to the page of the 'debate.' I thought you might be interested in this sort of issue and the comments contributed. I get very little intellectual stimulation from in the current environment. I don't know if you feel the same way, but I thought maybe you do. I don't use my vocabulary or present difficult topics for debate in class, because that's not my job. However, it is what i was trained to do, and I find it enjoyable. Maybe you do, too. Let me know and we can have some really good discussions, I think. You asked if I needed anything, and besides the cute, little tri-shaw, I need someone with whom I can exchange ideas and not have to simplify everything I write. I don't if you have time or if you're interested, and English is my only language, but you certainly seem to be fluent, and actually have a much larger vocabulary than most of the undergraduate students I taught in the usa many years ago. Anyway, here's something that kept me busy for a few days. It was fun, especially because it was the first thing I've written that got a positive comment on this forum (some Rolling Stones fans agree with my ideas sometimes; it's an entirely audience: they seem to be much sharper than most of the commentators on BNet, except with whom those I agree, hehehe).

If this file is too big, I can just send the page URLs.

Thanks again for everything, and by all means, let's stay in touch. I'll bet the people in the US would like to hear your ideas on some of these issues. You've got a very mature intellect and you're ready for this 'work/fun' if it interests you. take care. kindly yours, doug eaves

http://industry.bnet.com/advertising/10005352/is-the-new-pine-sol-ad-racist/?tag=content;top-active#comments

http://multicultclassics.blogspot.com/2010/01/7476-watching-miller-edwards-debates.html

http://multicultclassics.blogspot.com/2010/01/7480-teachable-moment-sponsored-by-pine.html

http://multicultclassics.blogspot.com/2010/01/7483-pine-sol-fiasco-
goes-international.html

http://multicultclassics.blogspot.com/2010/02/7514-doug-eaves-is-back.html

http://multicultclassics.blogspot.com/2010/02/7496-northern-racists.html

Pine Sol's advertising is racist, according to Pepper Miller of the Hunter-Miller Group, an African American market research consultancy. Miller believes the spot (video below), which shows Pine Sol Lady Diane Amos driving to her fantastically extravagant mansion in a vintage Mercedes to find — lucky her! — a shirtless dude mopping her floor and showing off his abs, swaps one stereotype for another:

Black viewers now see that "mammy" has been swapped for "Mandingo," a stereotype that represents the negative sexual and subservient image of Black men.

Miller's column doesn't disclose her conflict of interest, so here it is: If companies ever get the racial aspects of their marketing "right," then Miller is out of business. Putting that aside, is she correct? No.

Hmmm.... I never said or wrote that the Pine Sol ad was racist
Jim, but it's definitely in poor taste. If companies want to be
profitable, they need to understand and engage their
audiences in a powerful and relevant way.

If Pine Sol really, really understood the deeply rooted
sensitivities associated with the Black community, they would
have never, ever even thought to develop a spot like this.

It's not funny. This is a 50's, 60"s misstep created in 2010.

Of all the ideas in the universe, funny or not? --why did DDB
select a cleaning woman for the first round of advertising and
a shirtless Black man for this round? This says a lot about
how far companies have to go.

Plus, there's way too much emphasis on the character vs. the
brand and the brand benefits. I'm happy for Ms. Amos'
success as the spokesperson, but it's not about her. I think
that's the problem. The agency seems to be trying position
the character instead of the brand.

Marketers and journalists who dismiss history and African-
American sensitivities as being too sensitive "race baiters" are
clueless. Stop being defensive and walk in the shoes of
someone who is different from you.

Pepper Miller

@Pepper Miller: Thanks for the note.

To the extent that I have mopped a kitchen floor in the past, both professionally and domestically, I have already walked in the shoes of the Pine Sol Lady and its customers. To the extent that I'm not black -- which I think is what you're referring to -- then obviously it's impossible for me to "walk in the shoes of someone who is different," as you request.

It is true that you didn't actually use the word "racist." You used the words "negative," "stereotype," "mammy" and "mandingo" instead -- which adds up to the same thing.

I think the strongest part of your argument is where you say, "why did DDB select a cleaning woman for the first round of advertising and a shirtless Black man for this round?"

Point taken. But not every use of black actors in roles that require cleaning is a redux of "The Song of the South." Sometimes, in ads and in real life, a black person just needs a floor-cleaning product. Clorox wants their business and is willing to make jokes about the lameness of its previous ads to do so.

You may see a "cleaning woman," but all I'm seeing is a woman who wants her floors clean.

Mr. Edwards, although I think that a person of European heritage in the USA has about as much of an idea of what racism in the USA is to African Americans as what 'cold' means to Inuits in Arctic, I must say I respect you for placiing the link to the MultCultClassics blog and by admitting that you don't know what it is like to be an African American in the USA. Now, if you admit that you don't know what it is like to be an African American in the USA, how can you tell what is perceived as racist to an African American, or not? That point is in the blog post of MultCultClassics, for which you generously provided a link. You may or may not have read it yet. His criticism of your presumption in saying what is, or isn't, racist is fairly mild by my standards. But it's a point that I think deserves more discussion. Talking about our perceptions of what we experience in our daily lives and how we perceive those experiences is a big step toward understanding each other. Of course, it's a fantasy because at the end of the day, people generally return to be with those of the group to which they belong. That 'group' often means race in the USA. On occasions there is racial mixing during time away from work, but it occurs much less than in Brazil where the majority of the population is already racially mixed on an individual basis. While racism against those who are darker skinned (or who happen to belong to the dwindling numbers of indigenous people there) exists, it is of a different character than the strain that emerged in the Anglophone world. I could tell you why, but I get hammered for overly long comments, so look it up yourself, if you want to understand why you can't make a general proclamation about what is, or isn't, racist in a country where African Americans may experience racism, yet European Americans cannot experience racism as a socio-cultural phenomenon based on the history that created the society and culture of the USA as you know it today.

But I don't mind being hammered, and you probably don't have the time to look it up yourself, so I'll try to be as concise and direct as possible, yet still provide enough supporting ideas, details, and examples so that you can get more than just a sound bite of information if you read this.

Someone may discriminate against you because of the color of your skin, but to call it racism is an inaccurate use of that word. Racism is an ideology that promotes a hierarchy of human worth based on skin color with the lighter skinned being at the top and the darker skinned at the bottom. And it has been systematically institutionalized in the culture of the USA over the past 400 years where those with lighter skin have been at the top and those with darker skin have been at the bottom. In that regard, little has changed since the first slave ship anchored off the coast of Virginia nearly 400 years ago. The effects of this racial hierarchy put African Americans at a disadvantage in American culture, then as now. Racism isn't just saying "I don't like him because he's a Venusian." It's an institutional force in a society that transcends the actions of any one individual. It is part of your culture, so until the culture of the USA is somehow miraculously transformed to Dr. King's vision of a colorblind society, or there is adequate miscegenation, or everyone get's collective amnesia about US history (which is the most likely scenario, since most white people are already there), there will continue to be racist messages in what may appear to you as harmless pitches for products. AT the same time, I can guarantee you that Ms. Miller understands your point of view, even though she's not a European American man. Why? She had no choice if she wanted to be successful in business in US society. She must understand what a European American man understands or she wouldn't understand the advertising world, since it is a product of the European American male. European American females are well represented in marketing, but the ad world, well, it's still a man's world, isn't it? And those men are white aren't they? And Ms. Miller obviously understands the advertising world, and you are dead wrong about her being out of a job if there weren't racism in ads (which is absurd to even consider, since the culture in the USA is racist, how could it not produce racist ads?). But if there were a reduction in the racism in ads, it would be because the ad industry had more African American people and other racial minority group members in their creative departments and in their executive suites. But I don't see that happening anytime soon, do you? The increased presence of African American actors as the main character in ads has been a nice touch since President Obama was inaugurated, but how many of those African American as central character ads were created by African American creatives? Uh-huh, that's what I thought. Do you get it yet?

You freely admit that you don't know what it's like to be black, yet at the same time you apparently feel qualified to make a judgment about a phenomenon, racism, that you don't understand. How could you? You're not an African American and you didn't spend 7 years in graduate school studying it. At least you gave the link to the MultCultClassics site (or I guess you did), and that's a pretty nice gesture. Now, the strongest point Ms. Miller made is that there is simply not the sensitivity regarding the HISTORICAL INJUSTICES that have CREATED THE CULTURE that YOU LIVE IN NOW. So, of course you never owned a slave and maybe you even got bumped from a promotion because of affirmative action (but I doubt it because you are too young, you are post-Bakke age, I assume), but you don't understand that being white is a natural advantage in a racist culture (and the only culture I can think of where it was a disadvantage to be lighter skinned was when the San of the Kalahari Desert and surrounding areas were invaded by the Bantu many many centuries ago). You don't understand this, and how could you? Maybe you had one university course in Race and Racism or even American Ethnicity, or maybe not. And you probably haven't read a lot of American history written from the perspective of how African Americans experienced that history.

So, while Andrew Jackson was having a wild party in the White House after his election and the 'cultured' elites of the young nation were aghast, most Americans were taught that is was a big victory for the 'common man.' It didn't say 'common white man,' did it? No. And Mr. Edwards, that's the point. So, American history is still being taught as though the European-American experience of history is the American experience of history, and it's simply not true for a significant part of the American population. No progress will ever be made until, addenda are added that say "while the 'common men' were celebrating their candidate's victory for the Presidency, African American slaves were being slaves in the Southern states, and the Border states as well. Their rights were not included in the Bill of Rights, because they had none. They did not vote. And they could not prevent their owners from selling them or their wives or children to other slave owners. The abolition movement had begun but it was promoted by a few out of touch New England intellectuals. Women were still property, too, but they couldn't be sold, not legally anyway. And that's how American democracy began its first expansion toward universal suffrage. . . " or something along those lines. No, you didn't read those lines in your textbooks, or if you did, you conveniently classified it as history, as though it were some old dead thing that holds no relevance for you today.

150 years ago is really not all that long ago. I teach students whose history extends over 4000 years, 2000 years as a unified country. They smirk when I say even mention the word history in the same sentence as the USA. And then we have a good laugh. Because they know and I know that 150 years ago is really just yesterday in cultural terms. So underneath the glittery multicultural surface of slick PR presentations, US culture is really not all that much different from when the Master could take a cat o' nine tails to his 'property' for insubordination or disobedience. Check out the prison population if you don't think so. It's the modern equivalent of Master's cat o' nine tails. The US sits at the top with nearly 1% of its population behind bars. China has about 0.1% behind bars, and India, the most multicultural country in the world, has 0.03% behind bars. Who is behind bars in the USA? Why? Are Americans that much more criminal than the Chinese or Indians? I don't think so.

So, while I personally think you have handled this issue with dignity and fairness, it would be interesting to see if you would make an extra step and really try to understand what it is like to be an African American in the USA. Because if you are going to write about issues that are directly related to their history, experiences, and disadvantages in a CULTURE OF RACISM, then you should become knowledgeable about what you are writing about. So far, I see little that tells me you have much knowledge or sensitivity toward the issue of race in the USA, which is like the other European Americans I've known, myself being excepted because people always thought I was an African American anyway, and I never tried to dissuade them of that opinion. It can have its advantages, on a personal level, at least.

In response to this thread over at MultiCultClassics:
http://multicultclassics.blogspot.com/2010/01/7480-teachable-moment-sponsored-by-pine.html

I can't respond to Doug's post -- it's just way too long. Longer than either my post or Pepper Miller's post. I'll just reiterate my main thesis:

The "racism" accusation is thrown around way too lightly. A good recent example was when Globalhue accused me and others of being racist because we criticized their accounting:
http://industry.bnet.com/advertising/10001688/globalhue-defends-handling-of-bermuda-account-suggests-criticism-is-racially-motivated/

Like Miller, GH didn't actually use the R-word, because they don't need to: The insinuation was obvious. This notion -- that if you don't loudly celebrate America's blackness you're a racist -- is simply misguided. It's also tactically inept, as it generates more disaffection than support.

It used to take "a nation of million to hold us back." Now all it takes is Pine Sol, apparently. I just don't believe that the Pine Sol Lady has her jackboot on the throat of black America. And a 30-second Pine Sol spot cannot address 150 years of history. (Would you even want it to?)

Having said that, there are some totally legit targets for criticism in this area. Here's one:

http://industry.bnet.com/advertising/10003668/microsoft-edits-black-person-out-of-ad-everyone-offended/

And here's another:

http://industry.bnet.com/advertising/10004661/universal-edits-black-actors-out-of-couples-retreat-ad-in-europe/

Perhaps we can all agree to point out the baddest actors in the arena, and not get distracted by the more ambiguous fringe examples? That, it seems to me, is the way to go.

Thanks Jim,

Seems as tho you've anointed yourself arbitor of what is and isn't racist in advertising. I find it comical that you're so quick to lecture pepper Miller, a black woman who's built a respectable reputation of compiling insights and perspectives from black consumers about what does and doesn't connect with them. Despite having done no such thing, you arbitrarily dismiss her facts and views along with those who disagree with you by pulling the "look over there at the REAL RACIST ACTS"...

Mighty white of you, Jim.

I would tell you that images and content considered biased and even racist by some black consumers aren't as simple-minded as a white columnist telling everyone to "calm down" but that hasn't worked yet.

I'd also point out the arrogance and irony it takes to tell someone that their insights/perspective are simply "too long" for you to consider addressing.

So instead, I'll just wait for you, oh great one, to lead the way. meanwhile, I'll be in the living room mopping with pine sol like a good little boy.

Prof. Eaves commentary is riveting. You could really use the
history lesson and a lot more humility.

Pointing out stereotypes in advertising does not mean the
advertising or the creators are racists Jim. Those were your
words and an excuse to help the agency hide behind the fact
that the advertising was created without the application of real
insights via a deeper contextual understanding of Black
America. It's as simple as that.

Your personal attacks are way out of line as they are very
misleading and and your "s...w them if they can't take a joke
attitude" is a bit arrogant Jim.

It's not Clorox's role to raise the self esteem of Black America?
It's not Clorox's role to stereotype and devalue them either.

THAT LITTLE COMMENT OF MINE WAS RE-POSTED IN MULTCULTCLASSICS BLOG (it's shown below, but it's the same post as the one above, so no need to read it again, but there's more below, if you aren't bored to tears yet.)

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

7476: Watching The Miller-Edwards Debates.

Pepper Miller responded to Jim Edwards' Pine-Sol counterpoint in professional and polite fashion. MultiCultClassics wanted to chip in an additional two cents.

First, both Miller and Edwards are respected at this blog. Yet it seems Edwards responded to what he considered an overreaction with a bigger overreaction. As an overlord of overreactions, MultiCultClassics feels overqualified to go over it.

As previously noted, Miller never called the Pine-Sol work racist. In fact, she opened by referencing consumer perceptions:

In earlier campaigns, many Black consumers perceived the Pine Sol Lady, portrayed by Diane Amos, a pretty, full-figured woman, as a "mammy-type servant."

Miller was not spewing an angry, subjective beef. She was merely restating what observers have already noted for years via The New York Times and Adweek.

Edwards' "revelation" regarding Miller's alleged conflict of interest is silly. Miller has never hidden her employment background. It's officially listed in the Blogger Bios. Most visitors to The Big Tent are completely aware of her credentials. The truth is, Miller rarely pans ads; rather, she is usually praising the work and clients she admires, or simply typing about contemporary cultural topics. It's a safe bet that Miller isn't forwarding sharp rants to fuel paranoia and ensure she doesn't "go out of business." Regular readers of Miller's posts could possibly conclude she'd be absolutely delighted if the industry evolved to a state where her services might be deemed obsolete.

MultiCultClassics has repeatedly declared that no one can dictate whether or not people think something is racist. So when Edwards dismissed Miller ("Putting that aside, is she correct? No."), he displayed arrogance and ignorance of the highest order. Sorry.

Particularly ridiculous was Edwards griping, "It is not the job of a detergent company to raise black America's self-esteem." Where did Miller hint at that? Granted, Miller might suggest a detergent company is hurting itself by potentially insulting Blacks, but she has yet to lecture any company on an obligation to lift the collective spirit of an entire racial group.

Edwards' whining about restrictions to advertising is a contrived and tired argument. Plenty of brands have managed to portray minorities in positive ways, including Nike and Allstate (through its use of spokesman Dennis Haysbert). Being edgy and breakthrough does not require insensitivity and offensive imagery. Need proof? Check out the annual winners of nearly every reputable awards show.

6 comments:

doug eaves said...: Dear High Jive-san, Good evening from Tokyo. You are not over-reacting to Mr. Edward's comments. I have posted a somewhat lengthy critique of his position from a sociological perspective based on the history of the USA. Mr. Edwards is usually pretty astute in his analyses (when he agrees with my own view, hehehe). But I've notice more than once that he tends to see a 'level-playing field' regarding matters of race in the USA. Whereas my 37 years of experience there suggested a definite tilt in favor of the historical and currently dominant group, that of European Americans (the biggest change I've seen in 40 plus years is that those of Southern European ancestry and Jewish ancestry have assimilated into the so-called WASP network publically, or at least it appears that way by indications of those occupying top positions of corporations and government, and their presence in the Republican Party in signficant numbers; while 3 African Americans, counting President Obama whom I suppose is categorized as a member of that racial group although I'm not sure why except for the color of his skin which has been the American sine qua non for race, have been visible in high profile positions in government, African Americans in the top corporate positions have been few, except for the CEO of Time Warner, if he is still in that position, but once you look at the positions of authority below or laterally to the highly visible positions, I do not believe you will find African Americans, or other racial minority group members, in numbers proportionate to their presence in the USA population; 45 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1965 was passed, the disparity between the percentage of minority group members in the populatation and the percentage of minority group members in top positions should not be as great as it is). After reading your comment and that of Ms. Miller, both with which I agree, I felt that Mr. Edwards would still not be able to get the point of why he misunderstands the race issue. Some of your statements and one in particular that Ms. Miller made succinctly expressed why Mr. Edwards did not understand the matter of race in the USA, but there was no historical background, supporting ideas, or detailed analysis to show him why he doesn't get the point about racism in the USA. I have taken the liberty of writing a comment that I hope will explain to him why he does not understand the offensiveness of his opinion when he misunderstands the presence of racism and its significance in an ad and then promotes that opinion as being 'correct,' while implying that others' opinions that disagree with his are incorrect. This is inexcusable for a journalist who is reporting a story, whether it is read by 50 people or by 50 million, online or in print. If it is part of the opinion/comments section of a newspaper then it is understandable, but the format under which he writes appears closer to what would be 'news' rather than opinion. Of course, I might have an incorrect understanding of his position in the advertising industry section covered by BNet, but it seems like he is responsible for reporting news in that field, not making news in that field. Whatever the intention of his 'reporting' might be, including such an opinionated position with so little support in terms of related facts and conditions, he still holds some responsibility for communicating accurate (fair and balanced?) information when such information can be ascertained from sources. When he is speculating, or ignorantly mouthing off, such comments should be noted as such. After all, he claims to be a journalist/reporter at least indirectly, from the title of being a fellow at a journalism school. At least I assume that's what the purpose of listing that award/title/position.
end part 1; 7:35 AM
doug eaves said...: part 2
[His especially asinine statement about the status of Ms. Miller's employment, in re should there no longer be racism in advertisements, must be one of the more ignorant and outrageous comments I've read from any news source in recent memory. One could easily turn the tables on him and probably have a factually accurate statement by saying if he didn't promote the neo-racist viewpoint of the post-Bakke generation, he could very well be out of a job, since my guess is that the bulk of his readership will probably agree with him on this matter. I've read some other BNet articles dealing with the issue of race, and the majority of the comments I read are eerily reminiscent of what the majority of the white university students I taught 15 to 20 years ago in Philadelphia used to say about the racial issue in terms of who gets 'advantages' in US society and who doesn't; they ignored evidence that was contrary to what they had picked up from their parents and/or friends and chosen to believe about the racial issue, which was 'the African American student they remember from high school who got the scholarship to 'Elite' University and is now doing very well,' which of course does not represent the experience of the majority of African Americans, or Latino Americans, or Native Americans, or Cambodian Americans, or any other group, except for the offspring of alumni of those elite universities. The majority of those students saw their and their friends' standard of living falling, and ignorantly assumed that the one or two racial minority group members who had succeeded in gaining opportunities that were better than their own as indicative of that favorite bete noire of reactionary conservatives, affirmative action, that mutated into an ill-conceived analog that became known as 'reverse discrimination' and was the dominant view held by those middle-income white students whose futures did not look so bright then, and chances are they don't look so rosy now either. Too bad. They were idiots then and they are idiots now if they can't understand that an African American getting a scholarship to Yale is not the reason their standard of living is falling. I had very little sympathy for them then, and even less now. Of course, I'm a professional and did not belittle them for such preposterous ideas, nor did I inject my personal opinion into discussions that were held in class: I merely acted my role as devil's advocate when necessary and asked questions for which they had no answers, thus allowing myself a chance to provide some social statistics and historical background of race in the USA, I grew up around willful ignorance based on racial prejudices and it caused nothing positive and plenty negative for all those concerned, especially my African American friends in the South; I thought living outside of the South, things would be different in other parts of the country, they weren't in 1985 in Seattle nor 1995 in Philadelphia; I left the usa a couple of years later when it became obvious to me that the Republican Congress was not going to be a 2-year anomaly like the '47-'48 Congress had been during the Truman administration].
end part 2; 7:39 AM
doug eaves said...: part 3
Very few European Americans will admit the fact that the USA continues to have a racist culture, although the empirical evidence supporting this fact is overwhelming. I offer a comparative example between the 3 countries with the largest prison populations to support my assertion. It is indirect evidence of course and subject to criticism, but it provides a nice elegant snapshot of how different the USA is when compared with China and India. While I do not brand Mr. Edwards a racist, I do strongly assert that his analysis is flawed because of his ignorance of the 400 year history of African Americans in the USA. I have credited him for including a link to your blog, but I don't know if he is responsible for that or not. And as you have mentioned and Ms. Miller mentioned, Mr. Edwards does seem to be a reasonable man and not inclined toward publishing incendiary statements reflecting a revanchist Confederate mentality about race. However, I do believe he writes for a readership that is essentially similar to himself: European American males in their 30s and 40s whose formative years occurred in or after the (non)decision by the Supreme Court in the Bakke vs. California case and reagan's 'welfare queen' comment, rather one whose formative years were shaped by seeing George Wallace provide the example for the Republican Party's 'Southern Strategy,' the consequences of Dr. King's assassination, and the undeserved condemnation of medal-winning American athletes in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City). I believe his assumptions about race and racism in the USA are ahistorical and suffer from reactionary prejudices, or are just simply misinformed at best. Your statement, about the flawed reasoning Mr. Edwards displays when he assumes that his views on what is racist in the USA could qualify as a universal perception, is credited for the initial insight that led me to commit a few words to this topic. If didn't credit you for that insight in the comment on BNet, then I will do that now. Thank you for suggesting that Mr. Edwards does not know what an African American perceives as racist, or not, and it is not within his scope of reasoning or experience to assert that he might be able to do so, whether explicitly or implicitly.
end part 3; 7:40 AM
doug eaves said...: part 4
My own assessment about the status of racial relations at the present time is essentially guesswork because I haven't lived in the USA for 13 years. I was born in Memphis and grew up about an hour away in Arkansas. I lived in Seattle for 5 years, and I lived in Philadelphia for 7 years. I do not like the USA and have no plans to return on a permanent basis during this lifetime. Thirty-seven (37) years was enough. My own ancestry is Irish and Italian, but in junior high school there was a friend of mine who looked my twin and he was African American. I was a bit darker than him though.

My knowledge of Americans on a personal basis has been none since I moved to Japan. There are other Americans at my workplace, but I am the only senior administrator who is an American, so that places me outside of the their stratum in the organization. They are all European Americans. The owner of the organization has strong prejudices against African Americans, at least in regard to occupational matters. When I bring up the many positive contributions African Americans have made to US history, culture and society, he tells me the story when he was on a trip to the US around 40 years ago and left his wallet in a taxi. The driver was an African American man. An hour after he had returned to his hotel, the taxi driver brought him his wallet, and all the money was still in it. He still tells this story with a bit of amazement. He can freely discriminate against employees here in Japan, since there are no laws against doing so. He's faced a lifetime of discrimination himself, since he is an ethnic Korean. Although he was born in Japan and lived here all of his life, he is still not a Japanese citizen, so although he pays hefty taxes when forced to, he has no right to vote in national elections, and he could never have hoped to have been employed by a large Japanese corporation, the goal of any ambitious young man here. Age discrimination is legal here as well. Gender discrimination is not legal, but it is widely practiced, and in many situations openly, since state enforcement will only occur after a plaintiff has won a case in court. I do not understand this country and I don't particularly like it, although I prefer it to the USA. I plan to move to India in the near future where caste, religion, and gender are the variables that determine a person's status in society. It should be very interesting. At least they are open about it. The same can't be said for the USA or Japan and their discriminatory practices. In Japan, nothing is 'open' anyway, so it's at least more consistent than the USA.
end part 4; 7:42 AM
doug eaves said...: part 5
One last point, I should make. I do not presume to speak for African Americans, nor do I assume I know what it is like to be black in America. My closing point in the comment about being 'mistaken' for an African American at times is true. The statement of 'the advantages of being an African American, at least on a personal level' is not meant to insinuate any particular advantages, but simply offered as recognition of a counterpoint from the societal perspective I employ in my comment about race and racism in the USA. If this point strikes you as racist on my part, I deeply apologize for that. It was not meant to imply any of the stereotypical advantages gratuitously associated with African American men. The idea that some could interpret that statement as such occurred to me after I had posted the comment. My mind is not so quick these days, and it never worked very fast when i was younger anyway.

As mentioned, I haven't lived in the USA for 13 years, nor have I known any Americans during that period, and for the past 3 years my only knowledge of the USA is what I get from the Internet. I don't watch teevee or movies, nor do I listen to contemporary American music, Newspapers or magazines from the USA hold no interest for me since they have nothing to offer that I can't get from the Internet if I need it. So, I hope you can forgive me if my own ignorance due to a lack of recent experience has left me insensitive to what is, or isn't, racist these days. The social construction of racism is not static, nor is a culture although its changes occur much more slowly than the social structure through which it provides the basis for understanding shared meanings of social phenomena, while it is also slowly being re-created inter-generationally and undergoing slight modifications in the process. At least that's the only way I can explain the election of an African American president, fact that there are African Americans in highly visible positions in various segments of US society, and the African American middle class is different compared to when I was a kid 40 plus years ago. At the same time the culture of racism in the USA seems to be alive and well. So, I was quite hesitant to offer a comment regarding Mr. Edwards article but after reading the comments from you and Ms. Miller, I realized that he wouldn't understand the historical legacy that informs the comments from you and her (this is another bold assumption on my part).
end part 5; 7:43 AM
doug eaves said...: part 6
But I'm used to being wrong and offending people, so I'll continue anyway, and add another point or two. Ms. Miller and you have both validated his argument by repudiating his points. The fact that he can get an African American woman and you (I have no idea what your race, age, or gender might be, and it doesn't matter to me, anyway) to challenge his views on his terms, i.e., simply considering the Pine Sol ad and a few other contemporary ads with some relevance for the issue of race by treating those ads as if they were created within a culture that is racially neutral and has no history (because that's what his analysis does; I believe the jargon for his type of analysis is deracination, in the abstract meaning of the word, but it is wholly appropriate, since he jerks the ad from the context in which it has been created to look at it as if it were an exhibit at a flower show; I'm aware that my comments are 'too long' according to replies, and that this diminishes the chance that people will read what I write; this reasoning assumes that I am writing for others to read which is not my motivation, since I write for my own pleasure, if someone reads it, fine, if not, then I don't have to write another long and tortured message about my usual topic of the ignorance of Americans and their lack of mental depth; yes, I know that's a gross generalization, and it's not true for those whom I trade replies regarding videos by the Rolling Stones, but that has been my experience with BNet readers; I do not know why people who watch videos of the Rolling Stones would, on the whole, have sharper minds and be more inclined to write at length about issues that have virtually no social importance compared to those who write on BNet about very important social issues, but don't have the time to fully discuss them; these are different groups of people but I don't know the psychology of members of either group, since psychology is not my field, sociology is; and this has occurred on other so-called news sites as well, not just BNet).

Regarding the issue of the Pine Sol ad and the comments of Mr. Edwards, Ms. Miller, and your own, I believe my reading comprehension is adequate to have understood that particular issue in that particular context. However, regarding other situations, statements, and attitudes about what is, or isn't, racist in the USA today, my views are simply derived from my own past experiences there, and the fact that I believe American culture remains racist, while admitting that changes have occurred in American society. Just the same, a society with a racist culture is bound to have a significant number of events, situations, and incidents in which that racist culture becomes realized in social interaction. I have read no written evidence during the past 13 years to indicate that the USA is a 'post-racial' society with a 'post-racist' culture. Thank you for your comments, and again please accept my apology if anything I have written offends you due to my own ignorance and insensitivity about matters of race and racism in the USA today.
Kind regards,
doug eaves, academic dean
gregg international college
principal, shinjuku campus; Friday, January 29, 2010

7480: A Teachable Moment Sponsored By Pine-Sol.

The comment below was left for Jim Edwards at BNET, in response to his Pine-Sol counterpoint. It's a must-read for anyone interested in making progress in the advertising industry—or in society, for that matter.
______________________________; doug.eaves; (THIS IS A RE-POST OF MY FIRST COMMENT ABOVE, BUT I WAS THRILLED BY THE RESPONSES BENEATH IT; PEOPLE USUALLY STRONGLY DISLIKE MY IDEAS)

thanks for the link to MultCultClassics

Mr. Edwards, although I think that a person of European heritage in the USA has about as much of an idea of what racism in the USA is to African Americans as what 'cold' means to Inuits in the Arctic, I must say I respect you for placing the link to the MultCultClassics blog and by admitting that you don't know what it is like to be an African American in the USA. Now, if you admit that you don't know what it is like to be an African American in the USA, how can you tell what is perceived as racist to an African American, or not? That point is in the blog post of MultCultClassics, for which you generously provided a link. You may or may not have read it yet. His criticism of your presumption in saying what is, or isn't, racist is fairly mild by my standards. But it's a point that I think deserves more discussion. Talking about our perceptions of what we experience in our daily lives and how we perceive those experiences is a big step toward understanding each other. Of course, it's a fantasy because at the end of the day, people generally return to be with those of the group to which they belong. That 'group' often means race in the USA. On occasions there is racial mixing during time away from work, but it occurs much less than in Brazil where the majority of the population is already racially mixed on an individual basis. While racism against those who are darker skinned (or who happen to belong to the dwindling numbers of indigenous people there) exists, it is of a different character than the strain that emerged in the Anglophone world. I could tell you why, but I get hammered for overly long comments, so look it up yourself, if you want to understand why you can't make a general proclamation about what is, or isn't, racist in a country where African Americans may experience racism, yet European Americans cannot experience racism as a socio-cultural phenomenon based on the history that created the society and culture of the USA as you know it today.

But I don't mind being hammered, and you probably don't have the time to look it up yourself, so I'll try to be as concise and direct as possible, yet still provide enough supporting ideas, details, and examples so that you can get more than just a sound bite of information if you read this.

Someone may discriminate against you because of the color of your skin, but to call it racism is an inaccurate use of that word. Racism is an ideology that promotes a hierarchy of human worth based on skin color with the lighter skinned being at the top and the darker skinned at the bottom. And it has been systematically institutionalized in the culture of the USA over the past 400 years where those with lighter skin have been at the top and those with darker skin have been at the bottom. In that regard, little has changed since the first slave ship anchored off the coast of Virginia nearly 400 years ago. The effects of this racial hierarchy put African Americans at a disadvantage in American culture, then as now. Racism isn't just saying, "I don't like him because he's a Venusian." It's an institutional force in a society that transcends the actions of any one individual. It is part of your culture, so until the culture of the USA is somehow miraculously transformed to Dr. King's vision of a colorblind society, or there is adequate miscegenation, or everyone get's collective amnesia about US history (which is the most likely scenario, since most white people are already there), there will continue to be racist messages in what may appear to you as harmless pitches for products. At the same time, I can guarantee you that Ms. Miller understands your point of view, even though she's not a European American man. Why? She had no choice if she wanted to be successful in business in US society. She must understand what a European American man understands or she wouldn't understand the advertising world, since it is a product of the European American male. European American females are well represented in marketing, but the ad world, well, it's still a man's world, isn't it? And those men are white aren't they? And Ms. Miller obviously understands the advertising world, and you are dead wrong about her being out of a job if there weren't racism in ads (which is absurd to even consider, since the culture in the USA is racist, how could it not produce racist ads?). But if there were a reduction in the racism in ads, it would be because the ad industry had more African American people and other racial minority group members in their creative departments and in their executive suites. But I don't see that happening anytime soon, do you? The increased presence of African American actors as the main character in ads has been a nice touch since President Obama was inaugurated, but how many of those African American as central character ads were created by African American creatives? Uh-huh, that's what I thought. Do you get it yet?

You freely admit that you don't know what it's like to be black, yet at the same time you apparently feel qualified to make a judgment about a phenomenon, racism, that you don't understand. How could you? You're not an African American and you didn't spend 7 years in graduate school studying it. At least you gave the link to the MultCultClassics site (or I guess you did), and that's a pretty nice gesture. Now, the strongest point Ms. Miller made is that there is simply not the sensitivity regarding the HISTORICAL INJUSTICES that have CREATED THE CULTURE that YOU LIVE IN NOW. So, of course you never owned a slave and maybe you even got bumped from a promotion because of affirmative action (but I doubt it because you are too young, you are post-Bakke age, I assume), but you don't understand that being white is a natural advantage in a racist culture (and the only culture I can think of where it was a disadvantage to be lighter skinned was when the San of the Kalahari Desert and surrounding areas were invaded by the Bantu many many centuries ago). You don't understand this, and how could you? Maybe you had one university course in Race and Racism or even American Ethnicity, or maybe not. And you probably haven't read a lot of American history written from the perspective of how African Americans experienced that history.

So, while Andrew Jackson was having a wild party in the White House after his election and the 'cultured' elites of the young nation were aghast, most Americans were taught that is was a big victory for the 'common man.' It didn't say 'common white man,' did it? No. And Mr. Edwards, that's the point. So, American history is still being taught as though the European-American experience of history is the American experience of history, and it's simply not true for a significant part of the American population. No progress will ever be made until, addenda are added that say, "while the 'common men' were celebrating their candidate's victory for the Presidency, African American slaves were being slaves in the Southern states, and the Border states as well. Their rights were not included in the Bill of Rights, because they had none. They did not vote. And they could not prevent their owners from selling them or their wives or children to other slave owners. The abolition movement had begun but it was promoted by a few out of touch New England intellectuals. Women were still property, too, but they couldn't be sold, not legally anyway. And that's how American democracy began its first expansion toward universal suffrage…" or something along those lines. No, you didn't read those lines in your textbooks, or if you did, you conveniently classified it as history, as though it were some old dead thing that holds no relevance for you today.

150 years ago is really not all that long ago. I teach students whose history extends over 4000 years, 2000 years as a unified country. They smirk when I say even mention the word history in the same sentence as the USA. And then we have a good laugh. Because they know and I know that 150 years ago is really just yesterday in cultural terms. So underneath the glittery multicultural surface of slick PR presentations, US culture is really not all that much different from when the Master could take a cat o' nine tails to his 'property' for insubordination or disobedience. Check out the prison population if you don't think so. It's the modern equivalent of Master's cat o' nine tails. The US sits at the top with nearly 1% of its population behind bars. China has about 0.1% behind bars, and India, the most multicultural country in the world, has 0.03% behind bars. Who is behind bars in the USA? Why? Are Americans that much more criminal than the Chinese or Indians? I don't think so.

So, while I personally think you have handled this issue with dignity and fairness, it would be interesting to see if you would make an extra step and really try to understand what it is like to be an African American in the USA. Because if you are going to write about issues that are directly related to their history, experiences, and disadvantages in a CULTURE OF RACISM, then you should become knowledgeable about what you are writing about. So far, I see little that tells me you have much knowledge or sensitivity toward the issue of race in the USA, which is like the other European Americans I've known, myself being excepted because people always thought I was an African American anyway, and I never tried to dissuade them of that opinion. It can have its advantages, on a personal level, at least.

Posted by HighJive at 8:40 AM

Labels: diversity in advertising, jim edwards, pepper miller, pine-sol, racism, stereotypes

6 comments:
KissMyBlackAds said...: Deeeeeee-yaaaaaam!

Did Jim read that? did he respond? Can he respond?
Sure he can, sure he will. The saga continues.; 11:24 AM
KissMyBlackAds said...: I hope Jim reads (read studies) this post. Can he gloss it over? Will he address it in honesty and fairness? Can Jim actually put himself in the shoes of an oppressed American? Will he see the need to do so when pontificating on the merits and setbacks therein? Does his privileged point of view grant him the foresight or the purview to assimilate his emotional sensibilities to that of a Black man or more challenging still a Black woman?

Tune in to see: As Jim's world turns (Black)!; 11:36 AM
HighJive said...: Well, Jim Edwards does deserve respect. He's been one of the few people in the industry who is willing to be open and honest with his feelings. MultiCultClassics will take someone with opinions – even if the opinions oppose ours or occasionally expose a lack of authentic understanding – over the typical leaders who say, 'We've got to do a better job," while they really harbor different feelings and/or never get around to even doing a shitty job.; 1:10 PM
HustleKnocker said...: awesome post. this one, like so many MCC posts deserves to be read by folks in the whole industry.

hope you can find time to link these up for some context into a fresh piece to spread around!; 3:42 PM
Pepper Miller said...: I read the comment Prof Eaves left for Jim Edwards and and on this post. Edwards did respond at Bnet and apparently did not read the entire piece siting that it was "too long". And unfortunately, Edwards is standing his ground and is choosing to remain in the world of cluelessness.

Prof Eaves called it correctly when he said Edwards wouldn't get it. Edwards doesn't get; doesn't want to get it and doesn't have to. His ego, arrogance and ignorance overshadow his ability and any desire to learn, see and empathize with someone who is different from him. Too bad.

Prof. Eaves' commentaries here and on Bnet are riveting. I felt validation for Black consumer marketing and sad that the "history lesson" is still needed. ( Sad yes, not surprised. America continues to 'skip steps' regarding American history and it's legacy and finds comfort sticking her head in the sand when it comes to racial discussions.)

To Edwards and his supporters, I never thought the Pine Sol ad was racist. Stereotyping in advertising does not always mean racist. Clueless, yes. People can have biased opinions and not be racists. I don't believe that the agency created this with mean spirited intentions. But I do think they have a limited vision of Black America.

I am appreciative of MulticultClassics and Prof Eaves for stepping up, standing up and trying to put a "little fat" on Edwards' head. But Edwards like so many just ain't hearing it.
(Sigh: ...and the beat goes on....); 4:41 PM
mtlb said...: Damn, this post is longer than our first episode of AdVerve. On... racism. ;-p

Saturday, January 30, 2010

7483: The Pine-Sol Fiasco Goes International.

MultiCultClassics Post 7480 presented a comment addressing Jim Edwards at BNET, responding to the Pine-Sol-inspired volley between the advertising writer and Pepper Miller. Turns out that the commenter is Doug Eaves, Academic Dean at Gregg International College in Tokyo, Japan. Eaves followed up his original musings with a six-part comment left at Post 7476. Check it out. And you have to wonder how Eaves might respond to the Pine-Sol spot that used silly imagery featuring the Asian Zen master.

Friday, February 12, 2010

7514: Doug Eaves Is Back.

The ever insightful and eloquent Doug Eaves left a lengthy response at Essay 7496. Check it out.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

7496: The Northern Racists.

8 comments:

doug eaves said... (UNEDITED VERSION, MANY MISTAKES): Part 1

Dear Jive-san, Thank you and Ms. Miller and others for your very generous comments regarding my feeble attempt to shed some light on the issue of race and racism for my erstwhile 'co-chromaticists'in the usa ('co-phenotypists' sounds like an occupation, but the color of one's skin should have nothing to do with occupation, so it's been dropped; so I thought of a neologism, as a neutral sort of term to identify a particular category of people according to their skin color, and it might be very wrong in linguistic terms, but it has no historical referent nor does it carry any subtext that could be deconstructed by some clever post-modern literary theorists, besides it sounds much better than 'co-racialists' because just the sound of that word makes me feel dirty, like I could be in the same group as David Duke or the late Lester Maddox, which makes me want to take a shower right now). But I'll finish this first before cleaning myself and then going to visit my girlfriend.

I did see the interesting ad about a zen-master and some kind of product, but haven't had a chance to read and think about it yet. When I do, I'll send you a take on it from one foreigner in the land where the branch of Zen Buddhism developed and then fragmented into various sects. But for now, the North Korean piece is particularly noteworthy.

A significant number of my students are ethnic Korean-Chinese. They live in China and have done so for many generations. yet they retain their Korean identity. It is neither a North Korean, nor a South Korean identity, but a Chinese-Korean identity, I suppose, which maybe something like a Korean-Japanese identity, like that which characterizes the identity of my employer and Chairman of the Board at our edcational institutions.; 9:12 AM
doug eaves said...: PART 2
Many go back and forth across the Yalu river and deal with North Koreans in trade or even in family matters, since not so long ago the province of Jilin, China, directly above the DPRK was historically Korean territory. Those students are very special and many are fluent in four languages, Chinese, Korean, English, and Japanese. They are not too anxious to be re-united with North Korea, which would never happen anyway since China would never allow 'splittists' in that strategic location to secede from the PRC. On a different note, the students from ROK believe that it is inevitable that the two countries will re-unify someday, but they are in no hurry for that to happen since they know their own standard of living will drop precipitously if a re-unification a la Germany were to occur on the Korean peninsula. North Korea is light years behind the South, not only in terms of their economic development, but as you rightly note, the extreme version of nationalism and cult of personality there, which have no precedent in the South. The father of a family is still revered and the traditional patriarchal model seems to be more firmly in place than in Japan, but of course, there are wide variations within each society given the size of their populations and the fact that they have both 'hosted' a foreign military on their lands for the last 60 years or so.

end part 2; 9:18 AM
doug eaves said...: Part 3
However, young (mid to late 20s) Koreans from the South who I have taught and gotten to know are remarkably sanguine about the future. They have very open minds and many have done their 2 years of national military service which gives them a very different perspective about engaging in armed conflict compared to those with a twisted romantic martyr view of combat. Those who have done their service are nearly invariably doves, as a matter of principle but I have no doubt they would be a formidable opponent for those in the North. And as you mentioned conversely, the South Koreans tend to be a few inches taller than the North Koreans, and those from the South are not just relatively tall, they are big too, as in body-building big. I don't know if it's part of their training, but when walking down the hall at school if a young Korean man is talking to a friend and not watching in front of himself, I get out of the way. I'm not small, but I'm not young either. These guys look genuinely tough. No doubt the people in the North are aware of their cousins across the DMZ and the limitless amount of animal protein they ingest. So, if there are hostilities between those people divided by an obsolete symbol, which I believe is the least likely scenario anyway. The soldiers from the North would probably consider just which side they really wanted to win. I have no reason to believe that they would feel any different than the East Germans did when they took the opportunity to openly defy Erich Hoenigger and Stasi and start smashing in the Wall. about tend to several inches shorter than South Korean men around their age now, ab6have incredibly open minds and are very interested in learning about others, since they have been historically isolated even more than has Japan. And many of the young Koreans expecially the women,tend to appreciate certain aspects of japan a ave no analog in the South. Those from the South consider it for what it is: a tool by which their fellow Koreans are being subjugated by a rather unusual man and the armed forces at his disposal. However, I would like to add that the North Koreans do know what is going outside of their country, since they get radios smuggled in from China that can pick up international and channels from the South. They do not show displeasure because there are rather harsh penalties for acknowedging the truth in that country. So, you would never get a North Korean to tell you what he or she really felt about the state of the nation and how it impinges upon her own quality of life. But I feel pretty confident that the North will not be attacking a country any time soon with its ground forces. Besides the fact that they couldn't afford it, the leaders are proabably aware that a significant number of their soldiers would defect during hostilities, regardless of the country they happened to be in, just so it was neither North Korea for the obvious reasons, nor China, given their habit of repatriating North Koreans to their homelands, much to the distress of those being returned to face the consequences of abandoning the 'workers' paradise.'
End part 3; 9:23 AM
doug eaves said...: Part 4
Given these circumstances, the development of nuclear weapons is really the only line of defense that the North has against those nations that regularly engage in 'heavily armed fishing expeditions' much to the consternation of those whose homes would be at risk, not to mention the lives of their occupants if an univited air-to-surface missile happens to make an unannounced visit to the living room where half of the extended family happen to be asleep at the time. If it were me, I would hope to be one of those in the living room when a present from Martin Marietta and the USAF arrives. Because if I were a surviving relative, I do not believe I could contain my rage. It makes me angry when I see the statistics of how many families have been destroyed by the USAF attacks, and recently the CIA's toy of the year, the drone aircraft, that is reported to be fail safe and invariably strikes its target killing only senior ranking member of a terrorist organization and his co-conspriators while sparing their family members. Their family members are spared because their family members no longer live with those men who are allegedly the officers of al Qaeda, or the Taliban II, or the Lakhsmar-e-Jaimish or any other organzination with an unpronounceable name and the men wear turbans.

So, how what relevance does this have relevance for the incipient 'high alert' from North Korea? Each of these acts of defiance against the global hegemon seeks to re-destribute the balance of power in the world today. As you know, 20% of the world's inhabitants control 80% of its wealth. This is an unprecedented development in the history of the world unless one were to include the first Dynasty of Egypt, or perhaps Mohejo Daro, or the cities states of Mesopotamia many thousands of years ago since there were no other civilizatons that developed 6 or 7 thousand years ago that left ruins and or a written record of their existence. However, with the rise of the great civilizatons of China and India, and corresponding growths in populaton, their inhabitants consisted of about 60% of the world's population and as such, they also manufactured and crafter about 60% of the goods at the time that were available for trade as source of wealth in precious metals or throught bartering for products that couldn't be found in their geographies. And this pattern seemed to have lasted relatively stably until the European colonial conquests over the known world and soon following the Industrial Revolution, Adam Smith's ex post facto theorizing about what was happeining politically and economically across the world touched by the industrial giant of the day, Britain, Right where is this going?

End part 4; 9:38 AM
doug eaves said...: part 5
OK, the topic, North Korea and nuclear weapons. What would you do as the leader of a very poor, but very independent country with few natural resources other than it's intelligent, docile, and well-disciplined people? It's too bad that Dear Leader doesn't seem to understand the concept of humanistic values, nor does he seem to show appreciation for the sacrifices they make for his megalomania. Very sad. However, in regard to his determination in building an arsenal to protect his fiefdom, I can't say that I blame, or Iran, or Syria, or any of the countries that are on the , yet occupy a rather strategic location in East Asia, sharing boreders with 2 nuclear powers and significant presence of a third and hostile nuclear when faced with the double standards, deception, and domination explcitly The Big Lie of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), in which the 5 extant nuclear powers at the time agreed to dismantle and destroy their nuclear arsenals.

"NPT is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to . . . further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament"

"(T)he (NPT is the) only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon States

On 11 May 1995, in accordance with article X, paragraph 2, the Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons decided that the Treaty should continue in force indefinitely (see Decision 3).

And Article VI

Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a Treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.

Well, compared to age of Methuselah, I suppose this is still an early date in the good faith negotiations that the signatories agreed to in 1968 with nearly all states ratifying the agreement within 10years after its proposal. I haven't even included the rules from earlier articles in which it plainly states that all states have a right to engage in peaceful nuclear research and to have access to those materials which allow such research to be undertaken. This hasn't changed. It's still the only law in the world that clearly stipulates the nuclear powers are not to be nuclear powers forever. But 42 years is forever for some people, such as males in Sierra Leone whose average lifespan is only41 years. Likewise, men in Mozambique and Angola have average lifespans of 41 years of age. It's sad to think that some people lived there entire life wondering if some psycho outside of the tropics decides to finish this little experiment in humanity once and for all. And all they needed to do was go to the beach, enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells, and say, 'yeah, this is really too beautiful to screw up just because we are pig-headed buffoons doing the bidding for other pig-headed buffoons. Let's go see what's happening down at that cove." "Sounds like a great idea to me. Relaxation, now where have I heard that word before . . ."

OK it's fantasy, but having arsenals that can blow up the world 50 times over is not? In this case the fantasy doesn't sound nearly as crazy as the reality. Do you thinnk they'll get the idea? No. Not a chance. We are a failed experiment, and we'll do away with ourselves, sooner or later. And then intelligent life might be able to inhabit what once the pearl of the solar system.
End Part 5; 9:41 AM
doug eaves said...: Part 6
The development of nuclear armaments seems a much better strategy than that of the 'bluff'as practiced by the late novelist, raconteur, aficionado of Cuban cigars and president of Iraq, Mr. Saddam Hussein. Bluffs have an achilles heel as a strategy, whether it's military, academic, athletic, or consensual activity between two adults, and that is there should be at least some substantial force or power to back up that bluff should the opponent call the bluff and demand a showdown.

So, what can the Dear Leader possibly do? He can't depend on his regular coscripts to starve as they get ready to blown to bits by superior firepower. So, They can't rely on the commitment of their soldiers to defend Dear Leader, his family and those who occupy hte elites postitions in that totatalitarian state. You only need one person to push a button. However, the Chinese and the Japanese are in no hurry to get rid of the current regime since Mr. Kim fulfills a purpose for the ruling parties in both of those countries. For China, Mr. Kim is the 'wild card' or the 'joker' if you will, who can be counted to keep the usa and japan off balance due to his regime's strong preference for guns over butter, as far as the citizens who are civilians. The military members get plenty of both. For Japan, Mr. Kim plays the role of a sinister shadow who may or may not choose to test one of his nuclear devices on a small Japanese city, or maybe just one of the many large unused airports that dot the landscape in Northern part of Honshu, above Tokyo but on the same island. So, as long as Mr. Kim is in power, the Japanese right have a convenient tool to try and stir up their own version of nationalism among a population with an average age around 44 years old and fastest growing age group being those who are over 85. So, I don't think that much will come of Mr. Kim's saber-rattling unless he really does feel he has no other option except to respond to some untenable situation with a show of arms. And it won't be against China, that's for sure, because then he really would be wiped out. They do not take kindly to foreigners intervening in their domestic affairs whether it's written, spoken, launched from a missile pad, or dropped from a plane.

Oh, before I go, their rather peculiar ideology is not even considered in the South, except perhaps by some die-hard ultra-nationalists, but they are dying off and interestingly the younger genreation do not provide members to fill the ranks of the Nationalist ideologues, as they have in Japan, although they are relatively few hereas well these days. More imortatntly, they aren't taken seriously in either place. It would be something the people of the usa could learn from a couple of civilizations that predate Anglo-america by a nearly 2000 years. The know its nationalists, but I haven't met any. While the Korean students I have from the South would be fairly conservative by any standard, they do not adhere to the North's ideiolgy, Ju Che (translated as, 'self-reliance'). Ju Che is somewhat analogous in regard to national 'consciousness' as the various 'War(s) on [Slogans (my choice)]' are in the usa, which seem to have no end, nor do they run out of funding, and they provide another means by which the federal government can slowly but surely chip away at the rights granted to the people in the Bill of Rights. They both operate on the same principle: fear of the (un)known, which on a corporeal level are kind of similar to some religions and their doctrines regarding an afterlife.
End part 6; 9:49 AM
doug eaves said...: part 7
But the similarity between the DPRK's Ju Che doctrine and the usa's War on _____ ends there. My impression of the usa's countless 'Wars on . . ' is they are exercises in negative sanctions directed at some sort of behavior or habit common to a number of individuals and whose behavior the federal government wishes to modify. You don't see a 'Challenge for Physical Fitness' but a 'War on Obesity,' or whatever happens to be the current domestic 'War' (I'll not start on the so-called War on Terror because there is neither the interest to deconstruct that lexical abomination, nor the time to deal with its implications for race, region, religion, and the process of demonization of the Other, with apologies to Dr. Said, may he rest in peace).

And yes, since political heterodoxy is unknown in the North, and even ideas that don't conform to the official doctrine can get a person sent away for a while, leaving family members to starve or enter the forced labor sector of the economy. And there are no public protests. Contrast, that with the South during the annual wage negotiations and the riot police enter the streets, much blood is spilled and everyone goes home and back to work the next day, if they aren't in jail, in the hospital, or too hungover to show up. If this isn't one of the best cases to show the power of ideology and its impact on individuals and the ways they organize socially to accomplish goals, then I would be hard-pressed to find a better example. The North has taken the Great Leader's original idea of Ju Che (self-reliance) and twisted in such a way that it means everyone else is giving problems to North Koreans because the North Koreans are too fearsome for any one country to try and control, so it takes the World against North Korea to maintain balance, at the expense of the North Koreans, of course. I've read that the food donations have been explained to the people as tribute and obeisance to the Dear Leader. I have no verification of this piece of information and cannot remember where I read it, but it makes sense given what you've written about your experience in the North, what we read outside of the North about it, and the historical precedents for such a racist ideology to take root. Nx sence North Koreans Or something like that. Whatever the actual method that's used, it seems pretty effective. It keeps the masses in line, provides a means by which they which can appreciate their deprivation in solidarity due to the jealousies of inferior races and they are the only nation in the world that can train over a hundred thousand people to move in unison at the same time. Quite a feat, indeed. Now, if they would just be able to get some food for dinner and oil to light their stoves so they don't freeze to death, the future is their's for the taking.
End part 7; 10:01 AM
doug eaves said...: Part 8
So, they seem to be in much better position in the long-term than what I see shaping up in the usa. 21st century infringements on rights never seems to run out of objects that must be defeated by any means necessary, but never seem to be, since that would put all those fighting whichever war it happens to be out of job (acountability, MBO, what's the cost/benefit ratio?). Legalize drugs, oops, no more DEA, have a truly open market, well, there goes a few thousand Customs jobs. Do away with speed limits on unpopulated sections of interstate highway, oh no, how state troopers positions will be cut, and of course, if people realized that only about 50,000 Muslims at the most out of a world population of 1 billion are even remotely likely to consider any kind of aggressive act. Having become friends with many of my Muslim students, I'm very confident in saying that anyone in the usa is more likely to get killed by a drunk driver or an errant bullet from a police officer's Glock, struck by lightning, or even accidentallyt shot by a militant anti-abortionist, than be victimized by the tiny fringe groups of radical Islam. The stories the usa media run about Islam and those who practice that faith is about as accurate as what 'the person on the street' in Pyongyang' has to say about the political economy in the DPRK. In other words, there tends to be a bit of exaggeration or using unreprentative samples, talking with those who have a speicific agenda they want to promote, regardless of the feasility or even desirability as the 'voice of a people.' Ahmed Chalabi. Need I say more? Fair and balanced coverage indeed.

South Korea has gone from one of the poorest nations on earth 55 years ago to a relatively wealthy and stable state in a matter of decades. And they love their country. I can understand why, the people are some of the most generous, sincere, humorous, and enjoyable that I've had the pleasure to know, an excellent cuisine, and a respect for human space that you simply don't find in Tokyo. Those Korean people in the North do not want their fate as it is being played out, but no one wants another war on the peninsula, that is one thing that the PEOPLE of the two Koreas both agree on. Let's hope their leaders are hip to the same sentiment. kindly yours, doug eaves. P.S. I wrote some ideas about the Asian guy who floats and smiles at the same time. I don't know if my writing about the Asian issue is so relevant, at least as it pertains to Japanese anyway. but since the guy in the ad is Korean, maybe i can give it a shot. What could it hurt? actually, many things. I must contemplate a while, with the aid of gravity of course. thank you very much. doug eaves
End Part 8; 10:05 AM

Subject
Does Orbitz employ human beings?

Discussion Thread
Response (Gavin)	06/21/2010 06:03 PM
Hi Thomas, Hope you're doing well. We thank you for taking the time in writing us regarding your travel concerns. I was reading your message and I learned that you wanted to complain about customer service for not helping you with your exchange request. We regret to hear this and I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused. As I read that you have already booked a one-way ticket, I believe that you are now requesting to get a refund for the original return ticket. I went ahead and sent an email to Air India to verify the cancellation/refund policy. I will send you an email once we received their response. Hoping for more patience on your part. Sincerely, Gavin \|\| 64352 Supervisor Orbitz Worldwide
Customer	06/20/2010 11:35 PM
Dear Orbitz, Thank you for your timely response. But I must question your assumption of using the plural of the word 'services.' It would be more appropriate to designate Orbitz as offering as a 'service' or selling an e-ticket, and then well, good luck buddy. Because that was my belabored point in the previous message: I have NOT received any service from Orbitz since late March. I have been requesting a service to change a reservation from Orbitz for nearly 12 hours, yet have failed to receive anything that remotely resembles a service. Unfortunately, the phone number for 24 hour Air India Customer Service for Bengaluru (Bangalore, BLR) was no longer in operation last night. I do not know if they will be in operation today or not. I offered to just buy a new ticket from them in an email, but they couldn't even reply. That leaves me with buying a $461 e-ticket from Orbitz online, which I can't print-out because I don't have a printer here, to return to Tokyo via Air India 306 DEL to NRT on Wednesday, June 23. You can sell me a new ticket on-line, but the e-ticket I already have is useless in regard to trying to change the reservation. Very clever Orbitz. I'll be sure and plan for unavoidable emergencies that occur 6000 km away 3 months in the future much better on my next trip. Sincerely, Thomas D. Eaves On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 4:24 AM, Orbitz TLC Service < OrbitzTLCService@orbitz.com> wrote: >
Response (E-mail Customer Service)	06/20/2010 05:54 PM
Dear Thomas, Thank you for contacting Orbitz. I understand you are unhappy about the services you have received from Orbitz. I have forwarded your issue to a supervisor. They will review and respond as soon as possible. I apologize for any inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience while this matter is examined. When we do learn of a problem, Orbitz takes immediate action to prevent any future disappointing experiences for our customers. Sincerely, Jessica Parker Orbitz Email Service Team Orbitz - Travel Well www.Orbitz.com
Auto-Response	06/20/2010 03:11 PM
Thank you for contacting Orbitz.
Customer	06/20/2010 03:11 PM
Congratulations! You have one first prize in providing me with the most humiliating experience during my 3 months of leisure travel in India. That entitles you to an entire chapter in my upcoming book, 'How to See the Real India.' The book on the whole will be a very positive portrayal of the traditional India that is alive and well, but often gets overlooked due to the fascination with the idea of making human beings obsolete as units of production. Kurt Vonnegut's book 'Player Piano' was truly a prophetic tale authored around 50 years ago. And Orbitz, you gave me an excellent coda to my book of why a person may wish to remain in India rather than leaving. Your organization is the first one to that has broken the 2 hour barrier in wasting my time as I futilely tried to communicate with a human being. At least Google doesn't try to hide the fact that their production is completely operated by cybernetics and robotics. But they tend to get their use of such machinery. You don't. And for that you get the prize. All I wanted to do was change a return flight reservation. This is not a difficult procedure, but your policy has made it one of the most humiliating, denigrating, and despicable experiences I've endured in over 50 years. Thank you for the wealth of empirical data you have provided to substantiate my claim that Orbitz should only be contacted if one happens to be a non-humanoid in need of travel services. Thank you for the enlightening experience. Sincerely, Thomas D. Eaves

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Where do you think you are?

Re: (DSM02717) follow-up

responses to 'i love that i left'

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RE: The Real 'Best Places to Retire'

Best Places to Retire

Growup

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RE: The Real 'Best Places to Retire'

living overseas, reply to a yanqui

Love it or Leave it? I love that I left.

real estate flacks

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Hunter S. Thompson's mother was a librarian

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i'm very happy for you

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Copyrights, dead links, and media whores

Why are you contacting me?

Re: Does Orbitz employ human beings? [Incident: 100621-001896] thank you, Gavin

mr. ingram it's been a while

Automated care, need some adjustment to the software?

excuse me, Ms. Bates but what in the hell are you talking about? can you write a message consisting of more than 14 words?

I'm back, Sal's comatose because i punched his lights out for trying to look like that fag on you computer

eigo onegaishimasu

フェイスブックで一緒にあの頃の思い出を語ろう

thanks geniuses, i'll just buy a Mac

Bread, Circuses, and Ms. Busa's non-Naked Breast

Re: フェイスブックで一緒にあの頃の思い出を語ろう

フェイスブックで一緒にあの頃の思い出を語ろう

Greetings from Bengaluru, Mr. Edwards

thank you for the affirmation sir

lily, how kind of you

thank you for your messages and sorry for the long delay in reply

Not only are you one of the most intelligent people I've ever known, you're clairvoyant too

Is the New Pine Sol Ad Racist?

RE: Is the New Pine Sol Ad Racist?

RE: Is the New Pine Sol Ad Racist?

thanks for the link to MultCultClassics

RE: Is the New Pine Sol Ad Racist?

RE: Is the New Pine Sol Ad Racist?

RE: Is the New Pine Sol Ad Racist?

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

7476: Watching The Miller-Edwards Debates.

6 comments:

Friday, January 29, 2010

7480: A Teachable Moment Sponsored By Pine-Sol.

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Saturday, January 30, 2010

7483: The Pine-Sol Fiasco Goes International.

Friday, February 12, 2010

7514: Doug Eaves Is Back.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

7496: The Northern Racists.

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