China is the new economy November 25, 2008
Posted by adjwynn in Entertainment, Politics, Pop culture, china, international relations.Tags: american idiots, axl rose, china, economy, guns 'n' roses, hollywood, kanye west, president-elect obama, superpowers
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In about a month and a half, President-elect Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States.
The mid-January tradition will erase the “-elect” portion of Obama’s title and wipe clean the presidential slate tarnished by eight years of shady policies enacted by the Bush administration.
Upon assuming his duties, Obama will be forced to address the most pressing issue in the minds of many voters: relations with China.
You thought I was going to say the economy, didn’t you?
I’ve heard enough about the economy, and I’ve said enough about it, too. The United States interaction with the Far East’s superpower will prove to be much more important in the long run.
The economy works in relatively short-term cycles. A few bad years are typically balanced by a decade of economic success not too far down the road.
China should be a larger concern because people, unlike abstract economic factors, can hold grudges. A grudge match between the States and the couple billion people of China would present some frightening potential scenarios.
The good part about Obama’s election is that many Chinese see his rise to prominence as a sign of improvement in the U.S. Some Chinese did not believe America was capable of electing and respecting a black president. While we still have to work to prove the latter half of the statement, the former portion has obviously been refuted.
Americans can only hope our ideals are not misinterpreted because of an obnoxious, irrelevant voice rising from the muddled, pretentious American entertainment industry.
We don’t need Kanye West, on national television, to proclaim China’s hatred of black people, as he did of President George W. Bush during 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. Verbally attacking your president is protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, but provoking an emerging superpower could impose a much more costly penalty than a horde of slanderous retorts.
I hope these famous buffoons — primarily the half-witted Hollywoodites who can’t keep a foot out of their mouths — can figure out when exactly is time to hush up.
We don’t need incendiary figures like Guns ‘N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose to reemerge onto the national scene pushing an anti-China agenda.
I don’t know how seriously China would react under a series of individual call-outs by overzealous American idiots, but given their less-than-stellar human rights record, I would rather not test the waters.
Remember, remember the 29th of October October 30, 2008
Posted by adjwynn in Entertainment, Movies, Politics, Pop culture, Uncategorized.Tags: 44th President, Change, Hope, Obama, V for Vendetta
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Obama TV dominated the airwaves Wednesday night.
The Democrats’ presidential candidate listed his policies and ensured viewers “None of [his proposal] grows government. It grows the economy.”
The 30-minute infomercial was an unprecedented campaign tactic — at least I can’t remember anyone else ever doing such a thing. It reminded me of one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies – “V for Vendetta.”
In the movie, England has been quarantined after the world’s deadliest virus breaks out and kills hundreds of thousands. The outbreak scrambles the government’s course of action mid-election, allowing a long-shot party and candidate to take the country’s reigns. However, this party relies on Nazi-esque policies to control its constituency, rather than represent them democratically.
Fed up with the ruling party’s stranglehold on the liberties of its people, a masked man who goes only by the name “V” attempts to reveal the public’s silent unrest through a series of more-than-controversial acts. He works against the fascist grains of the ruling party, and, naturally, is called a terrorist, even though all he really wants is for the people of England to have their freedoms and their integrity.
In one scene, “V” hijacks a major British television network and broadcasts the message from his heart.
Sen. Barack Obama’s 30-minute extended advertisement reminded me of this.
I’m not calling Obama a terrorist. I am not calling the Bush administration Nazis or fascists. Both these presumptive conclusions are childish attempts to find fault with what I see as a positive comparison.
Listening to Obama, I can’t help but feel hopeful, even though I’m not sure why. I don’t know enough about economic policy, I don’t have the solution to the War in Iraq and I’m not a middle-class family man yet.
What I do know is that Obama looks forward and sees objectives, not obstructions. I can hear it in his voice. I know that he cannot solve our country’s problems on his own, but I am certain he will do everything in his power.
In the film, “V” speaks with confidence about battling his country’s problems. He asks the people of England only to show their support of his plan. He knows that they recognize their country’s problem, and that he is the perfect person to lead them toward an all-too-necessary mini-revolution.
There’s the parallel.
Whether you think Obama is significantly prepared to lead the United States is not the dire issue the media has pumped it up to be.
What matters is that he recognizes what needs to be done and is confident he can provide the leadership necessary to turn things around.
Presidents are not elected to be the cure, they are supposed to act as agents of change. Obama knows what his role will be if he is elected as our 44th president.
