Random thoughts on a new year...

In the ending months of last year, 2011 (boy, I make it sound like a long time ago, but December 2011 was only just yesterday!), I've had so much in my head that I have wanted to jog down in my journal, but never get around to doing that. Maybe, on this day of the first day of a new year, I should clear out some of those random thoughts...

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

Last year, scandal broke, that a few college students were posing as high school students to take SAT exams on their behalf, for a few thousand dollars a piece. It causes outrage, of how low the moral of these college students (albeit smart as they are) in impersonating and taking exams for others for a profit; of how widespread the practice is in the well-to-do high schools in Long Island; and of how lax the controls and checks are by the SAT exam centers (thereby making it so easy for such impersonation to take place).

What comes as a surprise to me, is not that it has happened, but rather, how it's discovered only now. It really shouldn't have been a surprise. When the kids and their families with the wherewithal, when the kids' future in college admission depends so much on SAT, when the administering of SAT exams is so lax, no doubt the temptations are too great to resist.

It's unfair for those who work hard at prepping their kids, and at truly teaching their kids to be smart, rather than just street-smart. This past year, my eldest kid start taking prep class in SAT. Everyone says he's very young for the SAT tests. I don't really fancy drilling the kids just for tests and exams; but if he's ready for it, I want him to know how far he can go. While I won't sign him up for the actual SAT tests yet, he's doing the prep classes just for fun (all it takes is friends and pizza). Why is it so hard for those Long Island kids to do the same? Why would their parents allow such thing to happen? What kind of moral standards do these parents teach their kids, that cheating is ok, that they're willing to pay for them to cheat too?

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

Every time some upstart economy comes along, US starts its self-doubt. In the 1980s, there's Japan, with all the talk of quality circle, and how Japan was going to take over the world. Everyone was running scared since Japan was buying up properties and investments everywhere. The prolific savings of Japan was phenomenal. And Japan was starting to move from copycats of everything from the West, to becoming an innovator of its own right (hello, Sony).

That does sound familiar, doesn't it. You can replace the word "Japan" with "China," stretching it out from 1990 till maybe another 5-10 years in the future, and China would probably have gotten there.

Academics, analysts and investment communities are jumping onto the bandwagon too, noting how superior the Chinese model is in getting things done (and how slow-moving, if at all, things are going in US and Washington). Readers' responses oscillate between the mournful (of the decline of US) and hateful (of how China is rising up to jostle US on international stage), or gleeful (China is the way to go!).

If China is really taking the same path as Japan, with the surprisingly similar path of property bubble that popped in Japan a decade ago (resulting in the lost decade in Japan), and the build-up of the property bubble currently brewing in China, what conclusion or lesson can one draw from that?

There are other similarities too, between the two Asian counterparts. China has risen up as the manufacturing sweatshops of the world. It's since catching up fast, with its populace having laser-sharp focus on education. The result is a rising China on the R&D, catching up, if not surpassing the technology know-how of the West (and US, primarily).

Similarities don't just stop there. Albeit one authoritarian rule and one democracy, both Asian counterparts are rigid in their political, labor, business and other cultural settings. How easy or willing, by the Chinese central government, in tackling the issue of corruption that is rampant in China is anyone's guess. And, Japan has an edge over China in the not-so-wide income inequality gap between the rich and the poor.

Most folks in America believe that, if US sits out long enough, China would implode and US would resume its world leadership role. I'm not so sure about that either. Sure, America still has one of the most enviable environment in living and conducting businesses; but it has also been living off of its innovations and residual gains from the last World War when the US government had poured in tremendous resources in R&D and military, spawning tons of innovations as a result. No one is seeing anyone stepping up to the mantel...and certainly not the commercial firms and public companies who have to report to and are rewarded by Wall Street for very short term thinking, rather than strategic long term planning. And THAT is the most worrisome thought of all, with or without China.

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

Speaking of wars (World War II and then the Cold War), it's particularly enlightening and heartening to read the revelation of a cold war secret that is only now coming to light.

It is amazing to see how a small group of remarkably smart, resourceful, and absolutely dedicated people coming together, work on a tremendously challenging project that could make or break a nation.

Do we even see any of these nowadays? I highly doubt it. All we see and hear of, from bright young kids coming out of college, is their desire to make money, and more money. Going to Wall Street is their main goal (before the 2008 crash), rather than making rockets. Or starting some me-too startups with the only hope of selling it for ridiculous profits, rather than dedicating to finding some cure to intractable diseases.

And all these were done in absolute secrecy. Contrast that to the fifteen-minute fame that everyone seeks these days, from reality TV shows, to ridiculous YouTube self-portrait videos, to expose of all sorts of laundry secrets. It was a class act of its own.

That is something that I miss, when I watch movies like Apollo 13 because I don't see that same kind of hope and idealism that was bubbling in those bygone days. All I see is dollar sign in everyone's eyes.