I've been getting tired of writing journals in recent months (and years), but I hope to keep up at least the sum-up at year end. I generally read back on the year-end summary from the past couple of years, if only for my own amusement before I wrap up.
I have not even recalled that I've pretty much skipped 2016 since it's such a depressing year in the larger world. But looking back to 2015 wrap-up, it's still as relevant as it could ever be.
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No one in US or the larger world could escape the unrealism delivered by Trump. You can call the guy clueless, with absolutely no impulse control, and extraordinarily erratic by conventional political etiquette and standards, yet he's really quite predictable in so many respects. I'm sure the guy would deliver great TV ratings, given his erratic performance, rendering the whole audience experience amusing (particularly if you want to see how it turns out by giving a 11-year-old petulant child some taste of power, but you would predictably know it already, wouldn't you, that the child would dip his hands in the candy jar for his fill of sugar rush whenever he gets restless, and deny any misdeeds). And he has no concept of suffering consequences of his own act.
I might even find it amusing to watch too (though I've never watched one single episode of reality TV shows in my whole life, just the idea of it sounds like a total waste of time to me), has it not been for the extremely high stakes involved. How could we (American voters) allow a petulant child to take the White House, announcing his readiness to start a nuclear war with North Korea on Twitter??? How could the country be so divided that it has come to this? How could the country (GOP and Dems alike) allow ideology to become so divisive that there is no longer any common ground for compromise and politicking (the good kind)??? How could the establishments (GOP and Dems alike) allow so many voters to be left so far behind that they are willing to be taken in by any words, however unrealistic, from con man like Trump, just so that they could thump their nose to the establishments???
While Trump is an American product, the level of inequality is hardly a phenomenon unique to US. It is basic human psyche - the action and reaction - against the declining station of so many voters in western countries. (Afterall it must be a frightening reality, to have an erstwhile third world country like China to become far richer and more powerful than they are.) It is thus that we see Brexit becoming a reality. In the name of fairness, I do harbor some secret hope to see Catalonia getting its independence and even Scotland breaking away from UK. These are regions and countries that have come up with their own bootstrapping (Britain v Euro, Catalonia v Madrid/Spain, Scotland v England), and have done well, with hundreds of years fighting for their independence. The child inside my head - the child who always wants to see justice served - demands that fairness be granted.
There is another side of the coin, of those countries and regions (eg. Greece, Puerto Rico), who have come to embrace being part of a larger system (eg. Greece staying within EU, Puerto Rico yearning for statehood) when the times were good, but then turned around and complained about being "oppressed" by colonial powers when the times get tough, I'm not as sympathetic. It's like some drunkard eagerly enjoying the alcohol, then turning around and complaining about those supplying them alcohol when they have hangovers. No, you don't always get to have the cake, and eat it too, without ever paying for it. One way or the other, you'll have to pay, or play ball.
Something must be said, about how UK handles the Scotland independence referendum and the Brexit vote peacefully (though rowdily in campaigns) through ballot box, versus the very heavily-handed (and dirty) ways that Madrid had dealt with the Catalan voters with violence. Is there any wonder why the Brits are still held up as a beacon for the rest of the world to look up to, while countries like Spain, albeit considered almost an equal, is looked on with horror and scorn? Something must also be said about the hypocrisy of EU in ignoring Catalonia or failing to condemn Madrid's use of force against a very valid election. What kind of moral standing Merkel is preaching, when she embraces refugees, yet she looks the other way when EU citizens demand fair treatment in the ballot box? For the wider world to look on, and did nothing for Catalonia's independence push, it says something about the world having pretty much lost its ideal. The same can be said of the Kurdish independence push. The Kurds were the last-man-standing in the fight against ISIS, when no one else was willing to risk their lives or limb, not the Russians, and certainly not the Americans. And when ISIS was pushed back (and defeated), US abandons the Kurds to appease "allies" like Turkey. Reading news like this makes me sick.
But while I despise Trump on many levels, his lack of principles, and his being one nasty bully of a human being, I do give it to him that he's able to relate to the aggrieved voters that no other decent politicians like Hilary Clinton could. There is no doubt that HRC would have pushed ahead with TPP regardless of how bad a deal like NAFTA have been to US manufacturing sector, even though the rise of China as the world's sweatshop many times over had as much to blame. And for all his many failings, he seems more focused on trying to deliver on his campaign promises. (Whether he can deliver on them, or whether those campaign promises are good for the country, or not, is an entirely different matter.)
And to see that the POTUS, arguably the most powerful office in the world, is actively promoting fake news, is simply beyond embarrassing. Somehow Trump is so clueless that he forgot to check if he's caught with his pants down, so long as he keeps looking up at the camera and keeps reiterating that he's fully clothed, that's the story he believes. But how could all those voters looking right at him, seeing that his pants are indeed down, to be taken in by his story??? Was that how Hitler fooled his fellow Germans on his rise to power?
I'm still deeply troubled by the fact that we could be witnessing the rise of facism in this country. I hope someday I read back on my journal, and prove myself to be very wrong on this.
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Could this be the longest ever economy recovery in history that we're experiencing right now? In the area where I live, I can certainly feel it. In fact the economy and property prices have fully recovered from the depth of 2008 by the time it was 2010, and that was seven years ago. Jobs, including decent paying jobs, are aplenty. (But these are jobs that demands skills and education, unlike the bygone era when you could achieve the same with a high school diploma.) There are so many luxury properties sprinting up, I wonder who the buyers really are. I won't be buying properties now, chasing after the market as if there's no tomorrow, that's for sure.
Between healthy GDP numbers, very low unemployment rate in years (that Europe can only dream of), would the GOP's tax cuts (from the tax reform bill) push the economy into overdrive? Naturally Trump is going to want to take all credit for walking into a rising economy, with no gratitude to the hard work that the Obama administration had paved in the past eight years. My worry is, Trump is going to squander away a very healthy economy, the same way George W Bush tanked the economy after Bill Clinton delivered a surplus and roaring economy in decades. Trump calls himself a businessman, but he has no clue on how to run an economy, or what it means to keep a steady hand, rather than delivering boom/bust cycles.
Personally we did quite well for the past year or two (even though 2016 was depressing in wider societal context). It is indeed providence that I should have experienced the rise of the web, the tech bubble (and its bust), the property boom (and the subprime bust), and now renewed tech push. I can only imagine this must be how exhilaration is like riding waves.
The past two decades have been very kind to me, and I've done well professionally and financially (without gambling or even speculating). As my kids come of age, I am increasingly aware of the fact that the younger generations might not be able to enjoy as much opportunities as I have enjoyed. I keep asking myself, are my generation and the generations before mine robbing the younger generations of the opportunities they so desperately need, given that there are more competition (increasing population) locally as well as globally from peers around the world who would be willing to work more for less, often far less?
As I looked back at the country where I grew up, salary level of far more demanding jobs now is less than what I earned twenty years ago. Given inflation and far higher cost of living these days, how could the younger generations handle that without leaning on family for sustenance? And what of those who do not have anyone whom they can lean on to? This is not an issue about race or gender, this is increasingly a class issue, and an issue of the lack of upward mobility. Although minority certainly encounters greater barriers, they are by no means the only ones facing hurdles. I believe strongly in meritocracy, I have benefited from that. I can only hope that America keeps at the ideal to allow a level playing field for anyone who has the capability to rise up and realize their true potential. I truly believe in that, and that's what I strive to do for all those who work for me.
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Apart from the fake news (in social media in particular), there is a wider diversity theme. I don't do Twitter (or have much care about social media since there's so much white noise and junk), but there's so much on it that I'm getting a diversity fatigue. There are also many societal issues that are age-old, yet they burst onto stage anew. There is #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, #OscarSoWhite, LGBTQ rights, refugee rights, etc etc. It's all exposé, sharing and more sharing. There is much importance of each, and a society good that comes of them, but the amount of sharing and the likes, and the constant barrage of coverage feel so exhausting to me. The one phrase that comes to mind is:
"If everything is important, then nothing is."
That's exactly how I feel.
Then again, there is no gatekeeper anymore, as in the bygone era when we could always look up to Walter Cronkite as arbiter of hard news, good sense and integrity. There is certainly wisdom from the crowd, but there is also much silliness too. Between the very important subjects like sexual abuse, civil rights, diversity, and tolerance, everything seems frivolous. Anything that garners more than 50 likes or retweets become scout topics for even main media like New York Times, and I'm, like, "what, this is news?" That's the main reason I don't do social media, I only do pull with news, I don't like push. I cursory read 5-6 newspapers everyday to ensure some reports aren't just "junk." I do whatsapp to stay in touch with specific families and friends, I check forums if I need wider opinions, but I can't care less if some celebrity has a meltdown or a baby bump. I don't have interests rediscovering decades-old flints on Facebook. I don't watch silly cat videos or some such for amusement. If I want amusement, I watch real movies. I'm sure that makes me a boring person, but that suits me just fine.
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I work in tech. As I told my kids, there are technologies that will become part of us, going forward. AI, big data, robotics, voice, and blockchain, are some of the easy ones to pick. I'm doing blockchain this year, I've done voice before. I don't know if I want to lose some hair to do a PhD in AI or robotics, but big data isn't too shabby. (No, bitcoin won't go mainstream unless and until it loses some of its anonymity and embraces more governmental oversight from various sovereignty, that's the long and short of it, regardless how the Winklevoss twins might try to up-sell you the bitcoin story. But blockchain as an underlying technology is here to stay.)
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And if the property market crash again, I'll be ready to buy once more. But not now, not yet.
Thursday, December 28, 2017
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