Jamie Oliver Teaching Americans about Healthy Eating

I find it sad that Americans do not want to do anything about their health and obesity. Jamie Oliver went around showing American children what eggs, carrots, etc. were and the children were clueless in what these objects were. Its become sad that Americans have been eating only processed food like chicken nuggets and fish sticks. French fries constitute the vegetable intake for many Americans these days.

Do vegetable really taste that bad? I don't think so. Maybe its just the way Americans cook their vegetables.

China surpasses Japan to become second largest Economy

It was recently reported that China passed Japan to become the second largest economy in the world, right behind the USA. However, a better measure of the wealth of a nation is the per capita GDP. In terms of its per capita GDP, China ($6,600) is poorer than Poland ($14,000) and nowhere near Japan ($33,000). In fact, China is in about the same place as El Salvador, when its economy is considered in the light of per capita GDP.

Having lived there, the local citizens really do not care considering their lives have not really improved that much. Granted, the infrastructure is better than most countries especially in the large cities but the quality of life still is not very good. Because of the costs of living in cities such as Shanghai, many people spend their free time sleeping or watching tv, instead of pursuing other interests such as sports, photography, etc.

Genetic food

The Food and Drug Administration is seriously considering whether to approve the first genetically engineered animal that people would eat — salmon that can grow at twice the normal rate. Is this supposed to be good for people?

Cellphone costs

For the past 5 months I was using a pay as you go dumbphone, waiting for the new phones to come out. I saw the Incredible come out for Verizon and the latest launch of the Evo by Sprint. Both of them have awesome technical specifications. I even tried out the HTC Pro Touch 2 before I got pissed off at Verizon and just returned it. All the phones seem to have horrible battery life. I suppose I am still used to not charging my phone for 5 days. These phones need to be charged at least a couple of times a day. I guess the solar bookbags are going to be in higher demand now so that phones can be charged on the go, although they probably wouldn't be able to charge the phone at a rate faster than its usage.

Although all these phones are really nice, I still found that paying all these plans require about $100 a month (data plan + talking + taxes). Maybe its a bit of sticker shock since my plans have always been about $40 including taxes. Would I really be spending that much time on a cellphone and do I really need to be that connected to the internet? Probably not. I spend about 10 hours a day in front of a pc already.

Boycotting BP is not the right target

I know I have been saying that I will not fill up at BP anymore because of the Gulf disaster. However, they aren't the appropriate target we should inflict are anger on. We should really be upset at the government for passing lax regulations under the pressure of lobbyists and the donors who helped them raised their campaign funds.

Boycotting BP will not really affect their bottom line since today, BP owns only about 100 of the 900 or so gas stations bearing its name. The rest are operated by independent business owners. Such a boycott would hurt the individual owners. And really, we do not have many more choices. ExxonMobil is also one of the nation's biggest polluters in the world and Chevron has been denying responsibility for its role in an environmental catastrophe in the Amazon.

Obama has rightly suspended offshore lease sales, but he continues to promote a deeply counterproductive energy policy — on Thursday, during a news conference discussing the administration's response to the spill, he touted a Senate climate bill that would provide massive financial incentives to states that open their coasts to drilling, thus making a repeat of the spill more likely. Those provisions have to go. It's in Washington, not London, where protesters should make their voices heard. Sprint Evo

School Killings

Recently, there has been a trend of people killing elementary school children in China with knives. It has been suggested that this is due to the social unrest with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Also, with politicians and government officials using their power to take advantage of the civilians, these killers seem to be turning to people who cannot defend themselves to get the attention of the government. Recently, Wenjia Bao has responded so maybe this method seems to have gotten the attention of the officials. Whether anything is done is another story though.

In the US and other countries, these kinds of killings seem to be more brutal because the violence is started with a gun. Because of this, they seem to get more press than the killings of schoolchildren in China. It could also be that China tries to repress such news from leaking out of China.

Networking

Being in China, it seems to me that local Chinese white-collared workers are almost stuck with their careers once they begin it. When I say that, I mean that it seems difficult to go from a job in finance to a job in marketing. Although there are many skills that can be transferable, it just seems to be something that is very rare. In the States, I always see people move from accounting to marketing or from project manager to sales but not the case in China.

At first glance, people may think that it is due to the fact that China has too many people and companies would rather hire someone with the perfect skill set but in reality, China has a shortage of skilled people and sometimes may need to hire outside the perfect person. I think a big reason that the people in the US are able to change career paths is due to their openness to network with other people. The Chinese do not network as much.

It may be strange to think that considering that guanxi (relationships) is so important in China. However, there are not really networking events that local Chinese people participate in. When I was there, there would be many universities setting up mixers and also having seminars, mostly for people to network and find jobs. However, this concept is new to the local Chinese. They do have job fairs but these are insanely over crowded and you may only have 5-10 minutes to speak to the recruiter in which you barely have a chance to make an impression. They mainly ask, can you speak English, do you know how to do x, y and z. It seems to me that at these recruiting events, they are also looking for the perfect candidates. Maybe its because companies in China do not want to spend the time training. I didn't get much of a training when I went there so its a possibility.

Where has the service gone?

Considering that the United States is supposed to be known as a service country, it has some of the worst customer service when it comes to telecommunications companies. Granted, when I was in China, the customer service was not great either with China Telecom. Maybe telecommunicaton companies all over the world have horrible service since they know users only have a couple of choices. Its more of choosing the less of all evils I suppose.

I purchased a Verizon cellphone that was to be of global use. When I received it, I popped in my China Mobile simcard and the phone kept complaining. I called Verizon and the customer service representative said that in order for the feature to work, it would need to be active with Verizon for 60 days. I told them, where in the world did it say this on the website. She said in a condescending tone that if I called an agent, she would have told you. I replied, "that is a very specific question to ask and I doubt that an agent would readily even know that or even provide me with that information without asking." She basically said there is nothing she could do even when I asked to be transferred to her supervisor.

Essentially, a rule is a rule. It really didn't matter that we've been using Verizon at home for the past 10 years (more on this story later). In response, I said, well I'm going to return the phone then since I have 30 days. Her attitude was of indifference and she said, you can send it back in the box you received it in. I sent an email to them hoping that they would change their stance and unlock it for me but I got the same response. I even got a nice voice message from a representative saying that its written in the customer agreement. However, I looked and it is of course ambiguous language that basically allows them to do whatever they want. Fine print: we reserve the right to do what we want.

Fast forward to the day I am going to cancel the phone and the customer service representative says she is surprised because we could have asked the credit department to unlock the phone for you after doing a credit check. I already had enough of their shannanigans so I just cancelled the phone on the spot and mailed the phone back. A couple of days later, the loyalty department calls me to ask why I cancelled. Of course she is deeply sorry and that is probably embedded into their scripts on every other line. But she did offer free or discounted phones and I replied, isn't that what you can find on the website? Sensing that I was not too happy, I think she pulled out her final card and said we can also give you three months of service free.

Of course I couldn't make the decision right there on the spot, but its nice to know I can get three free months of service from Verizon now. This all could have been avoided if they just simply treated me nicely on customer service and unlocked my phone. Honestly, I do not understand the issue since I was already going to pay for Verizon service. Now they may either be out $300 due to free service or potentially 24 months of service that I could have been paying for.

It seems that the departments at Verizon are silo-ed and just work as different companies. This is not a surprise to me as I've gone to many different companies to see their operations and it really amazes me that many are still in business. For instance, the company will pay several millions of dollars and then find that a department pays a good chunk of change to undo what was originally done. Sprint Evo 4g

Virginia Gold Cup

I went to the Virginia Gold Cup yesterday which is sort of like Virginia's version of the Kentucky Derby but with horse racing around some grassy track and also a special jack russell race. For anyone who has ever been there, its really not to see the racing but to be seen. Its people watching and the girls getting glammed up for a day in the sun and drinking. People tailgate and just having fun with their friends. It was a fun day but I don't really get why its such a big event. Its has a very country club feel to it, meaning its a very white thing to do.

To picture it, think of the Pretty Woman scene where Julia Roberts goes to the horse event and gets hit on by Jason Alexander. The event was entertaining and I did have fun seeing all the weird things some of the guys wore and the tight dresses that the girls wore. I even got to watch two of the races.

Suburbanization

Suburbization is a term used to describe the growth of areas on the fringes of major cities. I do believe this is only an American phenomenon because I had a difficult time trying to describe what suburbs are in Chinese. Suburbs are one of the many causes of the increase in urban sprawl. Many residents of metropolitan areas no longer live and work within the central urban area, choosing instead to live in satellite communities called suburbs and commute to work via automobile or mass transit. 

I am currently in one of the suburbs near Washington D.C. and I'll have to say that I prefer cities a lot more since people do have the choice to not drive and just walk. I do like driving but I only drive in NYC because I don't live in an area where public transportation is convenient. I think it is nice to look at a photo and know that is where I live. In the suburbs, I do not really have the choice due to the lack of sidewalks and all the shopping plazas.

There really is not a sense of character, history or culture associated with the suburbs. In fact, if someone was dropped into several suburbs, he/she would not be able to differentiate one from the other or even tell where they were. There are no buildings that are unique or special in architecture. I suppose a person could figure out that they are in one of the 18 states that has the Piggly Wiggly if they happened to see one..

Going back in time

One of the great things about the US is that we can do a lot of things extremely quickly due to the web and phone. If I wanted to cancel a bank account or stop my CD from rolling over again, I could do that from the phone or the web. When I was in China, some of the things that were required did not make sense.

For instance, I had to cancel internet services on behalf of my girlfriend. The telecommunications company does not allow you to cancel by phone or web so it must be done in person. In order to cancel the service, you need to bring your identification card. However, if you are canceling on behalf of someone, you need to bring their identification plus yours. For me that would mean, bringing my passport. I assume that they are afraid that someone would want to cancel internet on behalf of someone else for a malicious reason. I do not know why someone want to or would have the time to do that considering that some of the lines take a couple of hours (everything is paper so it takes forever). Anyway, I only had her ID and not mine. The customer service representative would not let me cancel the internet service without my passport. I showed her all the other ID that I had but since they did not recognize things like my drivers license, etc it did not matter. They said there was nothing she could do without an ID.

I turned around and asked the person behind me in line if I could use her ID. She handed it over to me and voila, internet cancelled. Such pain!! Experiences like that just make you appreciate how easy it is to take care of things in the United States.

Television Series

I've been watching Chuck recently and its actually a pretty funny show. Chuck centers around Chuck Bartowski, an "average computer-whiz-next-door," who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working in the CIA; the message embeds the only remaining copy of the world's greatest spy secrets into Chuck's brain.

I was thinking that such shows would not exist in China due to the fact that it is given a comedic way of depicting a government agency. In China, there aren't any ways to depict the government that are allowed even if they are truthful. In fact, one of the television series that I watched called "Dwelling Narrowness" (if you want the name in Chinese, let me know), where they couldn't even use the city of Shanghai since they were afraid that someone in the government would feel that it was portraying someone in the government. "Dwelling Narrowness" is about the story of people trying to purchase a home in Shanghai and struggling due to the huge price increases of housing and what the development companies would do for the corrupt officials.

First day of spring

It was a beautiful day for the first day of spring in 2010 and it seemed like there were a lot of New Yorkers out to enjoy the sun. A couple of friends and I drove to Bear Mountain to do some hiking and enjoy some fresh air. Its unfortunate that a lot of New Yorkers do not do activities like that more often considering the mountains are not that far away. Maybe its all the tolls that we have to pay but some places are only about an hour away in NY.

Birth rates dropping in many countries

In many countries like Korea, Taiwan, China, Singapore and the United States, the fertility rates have dropped. China had the one child policy but many couples in big cities have implemented their own no-child policy.  Governments in Taiwan, Korea and Singapore have been urging people to have more children. Singapore has passed legislation to rewards the Chinese to have kids. Many people point to the cost of having a baby for reasons not to have one. Nowadays, many couples have dual incomes and feel that they will decide to have a baby only when they earn enough to sustain their current living standards. The younger generation have grown accustomed to spending their money traveling to different countries, eating at fancy restaurants and buying fancy clothes. Unfortunately, the more one earns and/or saves, the higher living standards rise as well. In addition, some couples do not want to lose the freedoms of enjoying their life traveling and playing which may need to be sacrificed when raising children.

Parents in the past generation were able to raise two to three children while only on a single income. Has the cost of living increased so much that couples today are unable to raise the children? Granted things have become more expensive but its mostly because the parents have made things more expensive. Parents want to get the most expensive toys and newest things to raise their children. However, is it really necessary? Children before played with hula hoops and played tag in the park. Maybe babies are just that much expensive because the parents make it that way. Granted, it is probably extremely difficult not to want the best for your children.