Angry's Blog of Doom (or idiocy....take your pick)

[wevsspot]

What a wonderful discussion to wake up to on this beautiful Saturday morning. In my line of work I travel extensively to China, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico. So I’d like to add a little global perspective to this discussion if I may.

 

China is a country with a population close to 1.3 billion people (yes that’s right I said billion). Because of the availability of extremely cheap labor they are becoming (and in my opinion already are) the largest industrial powerhouse on the planet. The average worker in China makes about $108USD per month – and that estimate may be a little on the high side. As China’s industrial might grows, so does its use of natural resources, the primary one of course being the finite fossil fuels located on OUR planet. China is a dirty, polluted and depressing country, especially if you’re unfortunate to be one of the oppressed, poor and often hungry regular joes that’s a citizen of the country. Traveling through any of their provinces is an interesting experience, as you can drive through hundreds of miles of desolate terrain inhabited by literally hundreds of thousands of migrant workers trying to get that one job in the newest manufacturing plant. And then boom, you hit this industrial parkway full of brand new buildings cranking out any type of widget you can think of and being readied for shipment to where? The US of course, where us greedy little pricks will go to the local Wal-Mart store and happily pay a nickel less for something made in China over something made here in the United States. I’ll close the China chapter with an oft used quote “I have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us” no pun intended. Travel advisory, Chinese cuisine is the worst. Prepare for a stomach ache and misery unless you are eating at a high priced restaurant that serves “Westernized” Chinese food, otherwise be prepared to eat just about anything that moves or grows from the ground. I hate traveling to China, and the only endearing things I’ve found in my travels there are the Great Wall and Hong Kong.

 

Turkey is an interesting country, surprisingly pro-western considering their proximity to extremist Islamic nations. Turkey has a population of about 70 million people. The majority of whom live in Istanbul and Izmir. Turkey is a country steeped in pride, history and tradition. The average industrial worker in Turkey is a little better off that the poor Chinese worker. Turkish industrial workers make about $460USD per month. Turkey is also a country dealing with the after effects of nearly 80 years of unchecked industrial pollution. However their government is committed to cleaning up that mess and a good example is the Bay of Izmir. The Bay of Izmir was polluted for nearly two decades with industrial waste, the majority of which came from the tanning industry i.e. production of leather and leather products. It was SOP to dump raw animal sewage and industrial waste directly into the Bay, making it unsuitable for anything other than a water-way and travel route to the busy port of Izmir. To this day locals will not swim, nor even wade in the bay. The fish are returning but are inedible. But fortunately after years of dredging, filtering and re-layering the bottom of the bay the water is approaching the clarity of the other beautiful Aegean and Mediterranean Seas. Travel Advisory, Turkish cuisine is actually quite good. They eat a lot of fish, fresh vegetables, fruits, lamb and beef. Of course pork is still off limits for the majority of Turkish people.

 

Mexico is a has been, so I’ll not even bore you with the details (no offense to any of our Mexican forum members). In the over all scheme of things they were a little bit like the girl you take out on three or four dates and then blow her off.

 

Brazil can be both charming and depressing. Crime rates in Brazil continue to sky-rocket, especially in large metropolitan areas like Rio de Janeiro and San Paulo. Brazil is a growing industrial country, however unemployment remains relatively high. The average joe in Brazil earns about $330USD per month. I’ve always enjoyed my trips to Brazil but all travel should be made with the help of a trusted local to keep you out of trouble and safe. Travel Advisory, most Brazilian cuisine is excellent.

 

Does anything above have a point? Well to a certain extent yes. Whenever I travel outside of the States I’m reminded how lucky I am to be an American citizen. While overwhelmingly I vote conservative and republican, I cast my vote for the most qualified candidate that at least professes to have the same values, visions and goals as me and my family. Sometimes that ends up being a democrat or even an independent, but the majority of my votes go to the republican party. I’d like to expand a little bit on a previous thought by HG. I think our elected officials, the activist and the lobbyist get so caught up in polarizing issues that we often overlook what is truly in our best interests as citizens of the United States. We seem to get so caught up in abortion, homosexuality, political correctness etc. that we overlook the fact that our country is addicted to oil (or do we do that subconsciously so we don’t think about the oil problem?).

 

I can profess this with complete conviction, unless we get off our righteous, self-serving, apathetic Wal-Mart induced fat asses we will find ourselves residents of a “has-been” country, relegated to status of third-world countries in the global picture. The majority of our children are lazy, score the lowest in the civilized world in science and math skills, and are more interested in Play Stations, cell phones and computers than anything else. For all of our shortcomings though, it’s amazing that in many parts of the world the United States culture, model of government, economic and military might is so revered. Of course what makes 25% of the world infatuated with us, also makes the remaining 75% infuriated.

[OldGuy]

Reading your take on Chinese cuisine brought a smile to my face. The owner of my company has another little shop starting up in China so he's had to travel there a few times. Fresh mountain wolf or mountain snake are "delicacies" and such. And of cousre, as with many cultures', it is an offense to refuse your host when offering such fine cuisine. I wouldn't last 5 minutes outside of the states

[KimTjik]

You could always look for a Mongolian restaurant; their food would probably be easier for us narrow minded westerners.

 

One of my friends has lived several years in China, and last time I met him he told me about his passion for Chinese food, or more correctly the different types of Chinese cuisine. He loves nearly all of it, and is willing to suffer a couple of days with bad stomach pain for a nice meal.

 

Personally, I don't have any problems trying these kind of food, but still my favourite country in this aspect is Catalonia (ha, Spain; for me Catalonia is a separate country where my heart belongs!).

 

So, H_G, what's your view on testing "strange" food?

[Branjo]

Why do people always use China to divert the blame of what our country does

does that make our pollution and war crimes any less harmful than theirs?

[KimTjik]

Good question!

[red930]

Why do people always use China to divert the blame of what our country does does that make our pollution and war crimes any less harmful than theirs?

Because the drive-by-media holds China as a shining example of what communism/socialism can do for a people. We are constantly reminded that China has a tremendous industrial power. China is making huge technological advances. China is a nice place to live and work.

 

But, they are killing their citizens in forced labor camps and poisoning them with environmental disasters of biblical proportions. The drive-by-media ignores these facts in order to push their socialist agenda. They block any flow of information that doesn't fit the Communist Party Line.

 

I'll stop at their forced family unit laws(population control) that leads to the abortion(or murder of newborns for those that can't afford an abortion) of females in favor of male children that has reached the level of genocide but you never hear about in the drive-by-media.

 

Now, you may ask, where do I get my information. I'm friends with a young lady that recently moved to the US to get married to a buddy. Her Father is a Communist Party member and her mother is a university professor like her. Both of her parents are waiting for a visitor visa to make a trip to visit their Daughter here in the States. They have no intention of returning to China even though it is their home. They have found a way out and are taking it at the first opportunity. Their love of China is overridden by a love of freedom.

 

I won't even address your "war crimes" statement.

[Angry_Games]

I can profess this with complete conviction, unless we get off our righteous, self-serving, apathetic Wal-Mart induced fat asses we will find ourselves residents of a “has-been” country, relegated to status of third-world countries in the global picture. The majority of our children are lazy, score the lowest in the civilized world in science and math skills, and are more interested in Play Stations, cell phones and computers than anything else. For all of our shortcomings though, it’s amazing that in many parts of the world the United States culture, model of government, economic and military might is so revered. Of course what makes 25% of the world infatuated with us, also makes the remaining 75% infuriated.

 

agree totally (as you can probably tell by my rantings about how fat, stupid, and lazy we are becoming)

 

 

 

as for ExRoadie, it is true that we see differently.

 

But you guys do know that he is one of two Super Moderators here at the forums (Thunda wisely chooses to keep his opinions to himself hahaha).

 

People often ask me why Mike (ExRoadie) and I are such good friends and I trust him to run the forum when we are almost polar opposites in our 'beliefs' because they have seen us arguing in the forum about this kind of thing.

 

 

If you notice anything about our arguments, the one thing we never do is resort to immature tactics like calling each other names (other than narrow-minded which is true for both of us at times lol).

 

We have our beliefs, but we always respect that the other guy is not going to believe the same things we do, and we always respect that one man's "proof" is relative only to how it affects that man's beliefs.

 

ie: we are good friends because at the end of they day, we are GOOD AMERICANS.

 

We believe what this country was founded on...TOLERANCE

 

he tolerates my liberal views, and i tolerate his conservative views.

 

he and I both know that homosexuals wanting to get married are not important issues.

 

he and i both know that there are far more important things to worry about, but he and I both know that we have to live our lives, and we have to live together (not in the same room, but in the same country).

 

This is what a lot of America seems to have forgotten...that two completely opposite people like me and Roadie can still be best of friends even though our values may not even be close to each other. I think in reality though, his CORE values and mine are almost the exact same...as are most Americans values...we as a country though, tend to have mob mentality, or sheep mentality.

 

Guys like Roadie and me, we don't. We follow the party line as long as the party line agrees with our beliefs and values. Unlike most of our government who refuse to cross this line, both of us will willingly cross that line when it oversteps it's boundaries, because we don't give a . about whether or not we will get votes or whether or not our friends in congress will respect us anymore.

 

I honestly wish more people were like us in the sense that we don't agree on much outside of computers, but when we get together to talk etc we don't try to force our stupid views on each other, we talk about things that we DO agree on and enjoy doing like computers, video games, women, stupid americans, etc lol.

 

 

Why do people always use China to divert the blame of what our country does

does that make our pollution and war crimes any less harmful than theirs?

 

this is typical

 

it is what we call 'deflection'

 

ie: look when the government is caught doing bad things...what do they do? They start claiming about how there might be some terrorist attack, or they come up with some deflection that basically says "look over here!!! Don't look at that! Look at this!! This is what is important!! Not that!!"

 

You are right that it is stupid to even bring up any country when it comes to the dumbass things ours does. But that is part of what i said in a previous post

 

we spend all of our time bickering about the problem

 

instead of working on creating a solution

 

 

 

 

China is already an industrial powerhouse, and it is only going to get bigger. Their economy, by 2020, will be the largest in the world, if not earlier.

 

Our economy meanwhile, is going downhill because we've turned into a service industry, instead of our previous manufacturing industry. When the Canadian dollar nears ours in value, when the Euro is stronger than our dollar, when our dollar falls in value to most of hte rest of the world's industrialized dollars...thats a bad sign for us. (great for those countries though!)

 

We've got serious problems in our 'empire'. I say that in the sense of look what happens to all empires...they all eventually fall, and there's always a point to which later generations down the road can look at and say "yep, right here is where they started to decline".

 

 

I'd rather not be in a declining empire, but that is life. And it ain't like empires fall in a day...they usually take 100-200 years, and so in our lifetimes, America will still be relevant...but if we don't do something about it (and war will only speed the decline of our empire), it will come quicker...maybe our grandchildren in middle age will see the final last gasp of the great American empire, who was once a friend to all but hte commies, and is now hated by everyone (even our "allies" hate us for the part, they just continue to lie to our face and be our allies because of our money/technology or whatever help we've given to them)

[red930]

as for ExRoadie, it is true that we see differently.

 

People often ask me why Mike (ExRoadie) and I are such good friends and I trust him to run the forum when we are almost polar opposites in our 'beliefs' because they have seen us arguing in the forum about this kind of thing.

I was able to earn his respect and likewise he earned my respect over time and many discussions.

 

We aren't very different in our core spiritual and personal beliefs which makes a good foundation for a friendship.

 

When it comes to politics, sometimes I make him just as crazy as he makes me. This keeps things interesting to say the least.

 

Salute to my buddy Travis!

[OldGuy]

Salute to my buddy Travis!

 

Salute to the both of you! If there were more "individuals" like the two of you, then the collective lot of us would be that much better off!

[Branjo]

lol Id like to see the pollution and population problem in the US if there were 1.3 billion people producing it. Things might not be as different as you would like to think.

[SanguineI]

lol Id like to see the pollution and population problem in the US if there were 1.3 billion people producing it. Things might not be as different as you would like to think.

Wow, very good point. I never thought of it that way.

 

I think that if the United States decided not to do better for itself just because other countries didn't, we wouldn't have gotten where we are today. We got here by being on the leading edge and it truly is a painful thing to witness this country fall behind. Its one thing to predict that America will eventually go downhill in the distant future, but its completely different when you see it happening before your eyes

[wevsspot]

lol Id like to see the pollution and population problem in the US if there were 1.3 billion people producing it. Things might not be as different as you would like to think.

 

Man, where can I go with this one. First, the United States will never have a 1.3 billion person population because all of our kids are too busy with Play Stations, cell phones and computers

 

Whereas in many other countries the only thing to do to occupy time is have .. In many of those countries any type of . other than the good 'ol pilgrim style of . is actually against the law, so male and female copulate and boom . . . out come babys, billions of them!

 

On a more sane note, I'm not deflecting anything. If anything I directly point blame at us apathetic Americans that are so fat, dumb and happy that the only thing we care about is buying the latest Hummer (more power to you if you can pay cash for it and afford the gas), having the biggest plasma screen tv and eating out at dinner every night because we're too lazy to fix a meal and sit around the dinner table with our kids.

 

Every quasi-observation I made in my original post is a fairly accurate fact, based on my travels, studies and research of the countries I regularly visit. If you bleed blood American red you can't help but cry over the loss of bricks and mortar business and manufacturing capability in this country. Hastened by greedy shareholders, business owners and others out to make a quick buck (so they can buy that '07 Hummer, get that 62" plasma tv and eat out every night of the week).

 

Woe be the day that we rely solely on oil imported from the middle east, fruits and vegetables grown in south america, warplanes built in germany and tanks built in taiwan. Meanwhile I'm just gonna slip over to one of the two dozen strip malls in the nearest town, buy a new suit, then swing by the car dealership and snag me up a subaru (i own a WRX buy the way and it's a great car ). Then I'll take my new ride over to Wally world, buy some groceries and snag me up some of those cheap chinese extension cords that are about $2.00 cheaper than the ones they used to make in the states. At which point I'll go home, fix a good strong Jack and Coke (hey there is still something produced here in the states - gotta love Tennessee whiskey) - and promptly hang myself with my $7.00 chinese extension cord.