Undeveloped Haiti continues to suffer

It is always devastating when such a huge earthquake hits and destroys buildings. However for a country that is underdeveloped and has a lack of infrastructure already, it is even harsher. It seems like the latest estimation is 50,000 dead. Based from the pictures I have seen, the city of Port-au-Price has been almost completely demolished. With no equipment to dig through the rubble, it seems that even more people will die as they are buried awaiting for help and equipment to arrive. Currently, people are using their bare hands to dig through the collapsed buildings.

Aside from the earthquake of 8.0 magnitude, it seems Haiti has not have had any breaks lately. Aside from their political instability, they have had many environmental concerns. Most of their land has gone through soil erosion. Before its independence, Haiti exported more wealth to France than the combined total of France's other overseas dominions. The value of its exports even exceeded that from the North American colonies to England. It is in this past that Haiti's land degradation has its roots. Haiti is located on the western third of the island of Hispaniola. Although 50% of the country's land surface produces agricultural crops, only about 10% is suitable for irrigation and mechanized farming. Much of Haiti's agriculture takes place on steep slopes where, each year, farmers abandon about 15,000 acres of land to erosion. In addition, they were hit with a huge hurricanes in 2004 and 2008 that further stripped 98% of its forest cover due to deforestation and caused flooding throughout the country.

Please help out and donate some money to help the cause. Be careful of any scams as in this world it is unfortunate that people will take advantage of a the sympathy from people. Some of the places to donate are as follows:

• Americares 
• Unicef 
• Doctors without borders 

Google Pulling Out of China?

I realized that so far my posts seem to be anti-america so I wanted to write a post to indicate that its not all bad in the U.S. of A. There are great things such as freedom of speech which still is an issue in certain countries such as China. Upon coming across this article in the NY Times, Google’s Threat Echoed Everywhere, Except China, I applaud that Google is trying to follow the scope of its mission statement: to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Google was heavily criticized for appeasing the Chinese government's demands to filter out any news that may be seen as making China look bad (since the Chinese are very adamant on not losing face) or possibly instigating any revolution. After Google endured a cyber attack in which originated in China and believes that the purpose of the attack was aimed at certain Chinese human rights activists, Google claimed that it may leave China. This includes the Chinese search engine as well. In fact, the news of a potential exit was also hidden to the Chinese people. Hopefully with such a stand in free speech and with no censorship, this will open the eyes of the Chinese government when it loses a huge multinational company and along with that the jobs that many local Chinese citizens benefited from.

Hopefully I will be able to return to China after writing this post. Good thing I am back in the United States now.

Bank CEOs: Sorry for risky behavior, bad decisions

I love how the bank executives on Wall Street are claiming that regret their risky actions and bad decisions that put this country in the bad situation it is in but still defend that they should get their bonuses. It seems like just empty words to me. It is similar to when Bernard Madoff was sent to jail after tricking people out of billions of dollars but stated, "I cannot adequately express how sorry I am, I am here today to accept responsibility for my crimes." I bet he wasn't sorry when he was collecting all that money. I guess these people are only sorry after they get caught and causing the millions of other people much hardship.

Taken from Yahoo News - Sorry for risky behavior

Wall Street executives said Wednesday they underestimated the severity of the 2008 financial crisis and apologized for risky behavior and poor decisions. They also defended their bonus and compensation practices to a skeptical commission investigating what caused the collapse.

Maybe if they were really sorry, they'd give the bonuses to the government as a way of saying thanks for not going out of business like Lehman Brothers.

To be a Landlord or a Tenant

I find it strange that the United States laws protect the financially irresponsible. Look at the housing crisis and all the bailouts that the government is providing. Granted I understand that if they did not do this, the economy would go further into a tailspin but it seems that the financially responsible people get the short end of the stick. While we did not purchase the 2 bedroom apartment because we felt we could not afford it, others purchased homes that were beyond their financial means. Due to the crisis, the government has delayed foreclosures, etc.

I digress though and wanted to write about how the tenants in the United States seem to be able to get away with not paying rent. I have heard many of my friends who have had tenants who refuse to pay the rent for a couple of months. However, the law does not allow them to just get evicted. Instead, it requires that the landlord and the tenant go to court in order to get a date to evict them. Usually, this seems to be the customary practice and even so, the courts usually allow the tenants another 3-5 months to find a place, forcing the landlord to eat the years worth in rent.

China does the opposite in which the landlords get the preferential treatment. In fact, it is customary for them to receive 3 months of rent upfront plus the security deposit. In the event that the tenant is unable to pay, it is just a simple action of calling the police to evict them.

Being a landlord in the U.S., I would have to perform my due diligence on the tenant before renting it out. I am sure most landlords do this but unfortunately there is always the possibility of a tenant not paying and not much protection for the landlord.

Ways to Make Money

In the United States now, the biggest fad it seems is to make money from writing blogs. With the economic downturn, I see many links on the internet now that say, "Ways to Make Money" or "How to make money by Blogging." I'm still amazed by the occasional "Rags to Riches" stories that we hear about just from doing simple things on the internet, although the chances of that occurring are pretty slim.

In China where blogs are banned or at least restricted, the biggest fad seems to be selling things on their version of ebay called Taobao. Its become extremely popular that it seems that everyone is doing it. I've had friends quit their jobs just to sell things on Taobao. Other creative ways have been playing video games, especially those role playing games such as World of Warcraft. People would create a character and either develop it to be powerful or obtain weapons in order to sell the character online or sell the weapon. It really has become a phenomenon in China.

With the average income of a Chinese citizen at 3000 to 5000 RMB a month (that is around 450 USD to 700 USD), it seems that just selling things online or playing a game on behalf of someone makes a net income of more than that. Its pretty sad what the average income is there.

Regardless of where you are, the existing regulations and how developed the economy is, there are ways to earn money as long as the time and effort is put into it.

Too Fat to Fly

On my flight back to Shanghai to the U.S. , there was an old (it was American Airlines) and "wide" flight attendant. Since she was "wide", she was unable to walk down the aisle of the aircraft without knocking into some of the people who had aisle seats. My attempts to get any kind of rest during the trip was interrupted numerous times from getting hit in the head with a part of her belly.

Normally, I do concur with most of the laws set by the United States to protect workers to prevent workers from being discriminated against during the hiring process. However, when it comes to the hiring of flight attendants, I think the rules should be amended. Since I have been living in Asia for some time, I have seen the flight attendants there. Model-like and thin. It may sound superficial but there is some customer experience that should be taken into account. In addition, I think the airlines should be able to fight some of these laws with the following arguments in hiring the fat flight attendants:

• Customer Experience: Obese flight attendants ruin the customer experience and may affect their business.
• Economics and Being Environmental: Overweight flight attendants add additional weight to the aircraft and as a result burn more fuel. I am sure it could be calculated that with the number of miles that these flight attendants fly every year, the amount of fuel that could be saved with a flight attendant of average size.
• Safety: A fat flight attendant may not be able to exit the aircraft in a timely manner during emergencies or be even pass the physical fitness requirements in such an event.

I hope in the future, we finally start seeing thinner flight attendants. As a bonus, it would be great if they were hot ones too. Just for the passenger experience. Who wouldn't fly an Asian airline over an American airline if possible.