So Matoya, want to lend me that thing for a second? September 5, 2007

First day of school today (actually today ended about an hour ago, so this is just insomniac writing right here). Thus, some academic and professional reflections.

I took my GMAT in Feburary 2007; did quite well if I say so myself. Enough to get into the big leagues, except I don’t have anything else of note. Why is this relevant?

Ever since I started considering using graduate level education to enter Pacific Asia and do something of note there, a MBA from INSEAD in Singapore has been a personal goal for me, because of both its philosophy as a “global school” and its location in one of the major Pacific economic centers. Of course, I have no delusions about a high GMAT carrying me into a school of that selectivity, even if mine is comfortably (if not statistically significantly) above their average, so I elected for a program at Thunderbird that was more suitable of someone of my experience level (MS Global Management).

I still want to go to INSEAD, though, which means the last class I can enter is in December 2011, considering that most schools go by matriculation date instead of application date for the 5-year GMAT validity. (Even then, July 2012 isn’t that far away, really.) Kind of close if you consider that I am slated for graduation from Thunderbird in December 2008, meaning I have less than 3 years to make myself noteworthy, unless I want to take the GMAT again and hopefully get a similar score (I don’t, lol).

That’s compounded by the fact that it’s hard for a foreigner to enter Pacific Asia, at least from what I hear. I’m hoping to find an internship somewhere, but I don’t know how things will pan out, really. Which means I’m gonna be working my butt off to get a job, then working my butt off during the job. I hope I have a lot of butt to work.

Maybe I should just stick to writing stories and drawing crappy crap.

(Bonus for anyone that didn’t get the title.)

It’s not like rain on your wedding day. August 9, 2007

Which is more ironic:

1) Despite being ethnically Taiwanese, I feel more at home in Japan – let alone America, obviously – than in Taiwan. In fact, I feel very uneasy in Taiwan.

2) Despite being American and uncomfortable in Taiwan, I know five million times more about Taiwanese problems than American ones (like the Iraq war, are we still calling it a war?). In fact, I know nothing about the problems America faces, domestically or otherwise.

3) The fact that the last sentence of 2) is in fact quite American. Lawls!

Taiwanese independence and uh, redependence? August 4, 2007

Taiwan likes the status quo. Sure, no country in the world that wields any significant power, and some that don’t refuse to recognize it as a separate nation. But for all intents and purposes, it is one – the only thing it lacks is the international political weight it would normally have. However, for whatever personal reason they have, it seems that the majority of dislike the idea either independence or rejoining the mainland as a country. The most vocal elements of course tend to lean one way or another, but neither have enough general support to do anything that will set Taiwan down one course or the other.

But if Taiwan wants to choose independence or choose rejoining the mainland, it needs to do so within the next few decades. This is serious deal, lots of shit hitting the fan action, but if not, the decision will be made for it by other countries (AKA China and its allies or US and its allies), not necessarily in the best wishes of the citizens of the island. Here’s why I think this.

The Chinese government has already decided that it is not allowing any acceptance of Taiwan as an independent entity. China has enough weight, politically, economically, and otherwise, to ensure that no other country that China deals with on a global scale wishes to upset it for the sake of a much smaller “country.”

Ironically, China itself was never able to back out of this declaration after making it, because of its own government’s precarious position. (Instead, they’ve strengthened their resolve to stick to it over the last few years.) It’s still doing a pretty good job of nailing things straight whenever they decide to come up, but think about it; it’s a communist government in a country that is gradually becoming more and more capitalist, as well as more and more unstable on a political level. They don’t want to trigger something that makes everything fall apart, especially over this issue.

The only reason they haven’t done it yet is because the US has complete sea and air power in the region, and the PLA can’t exactly swim to Taiwan. Sure, China can theoretically act on Taiwan using long range weapons – bombs or such – but what does that create? An entire island aligned against reunification. An entire world watching as Chinese missiles kill Taiwanese nonbelligerents. And worst of all (for the Communist Party) a reason for the Western world to step behind Taiwan’s separation. Taiwan won’t be the target of a long-range attack without troops landing on its shores, and US dominance in the Pacific will deter that for a while.

But given that China does not implode and collapse over the next century, it will begin pushing the US away from the South Pacific (or basically, anywhere not near Japan) over the next few decades, replacing it as the regional watchdog. This has no happened yet due to the fact that China has no modern navy (or a blue-water navy for that matter) and no modern airforce, and therefore poses no direct challenge to the US’s carrier fleets. However, the gap between these two militaries will eventually diminish sometime over several decades, just like all the other gaps between China and the US, and I think a direct challenge to US fleets near Taiwan will more and more likely end with the US backing off.

Even then, the US will respond to an invasion of Taiwan, no matter what; not only does “losing” Taiwan a huge strategic loss, but the opportunity to create an ally a hundred miles off of the US’s main power rival in the coming century is probably an opportunity they would hate to lose, given the above scenario. A vicious week-long battle over Taiwan would result in China taking Taiwan back into the fold, or Taiwan declaring true independence as an US ally… because if they want to be under the protective sphere of US interests, there’s not much else to do.

The opinions of the Taiwanese themselves matters little with either result. So the Taiwanese need to decide in the next few decades to solidify under one banner or another, because without their full support for either one, there’s eventually only going to be one banner left to pick, and it’s going to be stained with blood.

The ABCs versus the FOBs July 8, 2007

One of my friends wrote a satirical piece in High School about ABCs and FOBs. I don’t remember what it was but at the time I didn’t know what they meant (American Born Chinese and Fresh Off the Boat for those people who I don’t know who won’t actually ever read this, why am I bothering). FOB is used in a derogatory manner in the US, and ABC in places where Chinese “normally” live. As if we needed more of those words. I mean seriously, can’t we be satisfied with “those motherfuckers,” “those assholes,” and “those bastards?”

Funnce brought up how he didn’t like the negative connotation of ABC here in Taiwan. (I on the other hand liked it when I found out about it because it gives me a chance to beat the tar out of someone, oh-ho-ho-ho.) In return, I brought up why FOB have a negative stereotype. To me, FOBs have one because they have a stereotype of non-wealth, suffer from language problems as English is relatively new to them, are non-adjusted to the culture intricacies of the US, and stand out in various other ways, particularly style and appearance.

So then I turned around and asked his cousin – a “native Taiwanese” – why ABCs are looked down upon here, and I was able to guess just about every reason before they came out of his mouth. Basically, ABCs have a stereotype of excessive wealth (like supposedly there is a sense that girls will go after ABCs because of money), disconnect from their cultural “roots” and identity because of language and cultural upbringing, and stand out in various other ways, particularly style and appearance. Does this seem familiar? As the great Keanu Reeves once said, “Whoa.” (Not really.)

I recently finished a book called “Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress,” in which the author details her life growing up in a multiracial neighborhood with (obviously) racial tensions dotting both its history and present. (It’s also a chick book but let’s not cover that now especially right after I wrote about wanting a necklace.) If I remember it correctly, one of the more thoughtful sections in it involves her as a young child (elementary school age) talking with her parent about why black people hate white people. Something like that.

Her father replies that although they certainly have a history, the underlying cause is simply because humans simply hate what is different and thus threatening. It is when you believe that just because you or they are white, or just because you or they are black that you are hated that it becomes a self-replicating problem that creates rifts of mutual discord between groups of people that further segregate themselves and unite under a flag of hate. I think that carries out to any labeling that we do between groups that creates tensions, let it be because of birthplace, cultural identity, skin color, race, or age.

On a side note, ABT sounds like “hey, it’s snot” in Chinese if you say it right. Put a pause betwen the A and BT. Second side note, Mark Twain was wrong when he said that parents seem to get smarter when you get older. Sorry, Mister Twain, I respect you and everything but if they get smarter it’s at being annoying.