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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (23029)	9/25/2007 4:54:30 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 217570

CB, the Chinese I was discussing were those in China. Just as Germans in Berlin are not the same as Brazilians in Brazil, Chinese in Beijing are different from "Chinese"-Americans in Washington. China is a big place, and like Europeans, they have spread all over the world. We need more precise words. I could have asked them if there are any honest people in Beijing, but my point was greater. It's more a China issue and Chinese are the people in China I meant. Not Japanese living in China. When dealing in ethnic stereotypes, words are annoyingly amorphous because it's generalisation of averages. You knowing some educated and honourable Chinese in Washington has got nothing to do with the proportion of honest people in Beijing. As you know, not all Americans are the same as each other either. Me knowing some nice ones in NZ doesn't mean the stereotype in the USA is like that. AS far as "lurking monsters", a quick mental scan leaves nobody exempt from the lurking monster possibility. Again, I mean on average. I am sure there is human DNA which means the individuals have very low propensity for lurking monster behaviour while others are rampant murderous sociopaths right now and always. I can't think of anywhere where carnage hasn't been the norm over millennia. It's just the exigencies of population growth and competition for resources. It was fight and win or die. All humans were subject to the same problem. Most animals are. So it's lurking in DNA. But of course some are more territorially belligerent than others. Some no doubt achieved greater evolutionary success by fleeing. Others by standing and fighting. Some by placid compliance as a genetic trend. Others by megalomaniac dominance. People who act like monsters of course have a right to do so. They are right that they do. What they need to understand to increase their chances of survival is that other people will do the same to them. That's the law of the jungle. Saddam did fine for a long time. But King George II wanted to go mano a mano with him and King George II won and was alpha male. It wasn't really about oil, though Bush probably thinks it was. Neither was it about WMDs. Nor was it about bringing freedom to Iraqis [though that's the cant]. Nor was it saving Americans from the scourge of terrorism. Terrorism is GREAT for megalomaniacs because they can boss their populations around all day long and nobody murmurs a squeak. "Freedom" is rapidly disappearing - for our own good of course. Now there are hysterical reactions about "terrorist threats" such as smoking in an airliner toilet [call out of two F15s to see the aircraft down], an advertising campaign in Boston and other cites, a "lights and wiring" shirt at an airport. Authorities are LOVING it. The last thing they want to do is catch Osama and defeat "terrorism". Mqurice

To: Ilaine who wrote (23029)	9/26/2007 2:46:20 AM
From: energyplay	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217570

Re: products made by Chinese - my wife bought a moderately priced sewing machine made in Taiwan. I looked at the case and I thought, they did a nice job with the plastic molding ! I touched it, and found it was metal - polished, smooth, painted precisely. The whole machine put together like a camera or a firearm. After a few more minutes, I stopped playing with it. The number of quality products from Taiwan has increased over the years, so why shouldn't other parts of China be able to make similar progress ? Unless there is a very different worldview, something like the risk aversion that Singapore has compared to Hong Kong, I expect quality will improve to a level similar to Taiwan.