Mike Bloomberg 2009

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has transformed his website into his mayoral campaign headquarters. Usually filled with press releases about his personal goals, the site now actively recruits volunteers and brings full attention to the issues he believes in fighting for and the endorsements that are fighting to keep him mayor. And having a bold, responsible leader like Mike Bloomberg is something I believe in fighting for.

>>>Join Now!

Published Post Number:128/134
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Earth Day 2009

It's Earth Day! 39th anniversary, actually. Not so sure Mother Earth is happy to know that we're still doing nothing to truly change our course and help save the environment. To celebrate, let's take a look back at 1990, when ABC aired a television special called, "The Earth Day Special." It featured the Muppets, Looney Toons characters, and nearly 50 huge celebrities, such as Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, Will Smith, Danny DeVito, Candice Bergen, Michael Keaton, etc.

This rare 1990 TV special "celebrated" the 20th anniversary of Earth Day by providing a great informational experience that attempts to catch viewers of all ages onto what is happening to the Earth and what - people of the 1990's - can do to save it. It's unique storyline provides great insight to how polluters are sleazy by personifying Mother Earth and having interactions between the evildoers and the Every Man (who happens to be played by Robin Williams.) It presents a Mother Earth hospitalized and news coverage of the neighborhood that witnessed her getting sick and what those people, as well as "celebrities simultaneously watching the show," are doing to help the environment. The only bad part is that it does not focus on encouraging taking mass transit, which definitely reduces pollution.

Watch Part 1 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ6HKG8R488

Thanks to A Daily Dose of Architecture for providing the link.


Published Post Number:127/133
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Agreement Against Jackie Chan's Anti-Democratic Remarks

As a follow-up post to yesterday's comment on Jackie Chan's outrageous opinion that the democracies and freedoms of Chinese people need to be "controlled," the backlash from Hong Kong and Taiwanese legislators begins as more people become outraged at the veteran movie star's comments.

>>>Sun Star: Jackie Chan's China comments prompt backlash (3:37 p.m.)
>>>Telegraph: Jackie Chan says Chinese people need to be 'controlled'

Published Post Number:126/132
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Hey Jackie Chan: Hong Kong Not a Democracy

Celebrities make mistakes occasionally, right? Recently, at a business panel forum in Hainan, Hong Kong movie star Jackie Chan declared that Chinese people needed to be controlled. He believed that too much freedom was not good -

"I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not, I'm really confused now. If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic." [Source]

Actually, Jackie, Hong Kong is NOT a full democracy. Its Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, was and still is appointed by Mainland China's government. The only people representing HK citizens who can vote for him include many politicians who are loyal to Beijing bureaucrats. If freedom of speech and democracy includes arresting and rejecting visitors whom are deemed 'dangerous' by Chinese official, then Hong Kong is a democracy. Hong Kongers are NOT free Jackie.

And on the matter of Taiwan, chaos results from the divisive emotions of whether to be friendly with Mainland China's government. If Beijing would be more open and tolerant with their own people, then there may not be as much chaos.

Published Post Number:125/131
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Betty Brown: Racist

Betty Brown, the Republican state representative from Texas should resign. Now. Recently, at a House Elections Committee, she was questioning Ramey Ko from the Organization of Chinese Americans. Ko was testifying at how many Asian Americans have differences in the names that are transliterated on some documents and an English name on other official documents. In response, Brown said:

"Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese --
I understand it's a rather difficult language -- do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?

As Huffington Post's Rachel Farris said on Brown's use of "citizens", "the last time I checked, he wasn't a nation. Or even a governing body. Nice guy, well-spoken, but certainly not a sovereign leader of a nation."

Well, let's put it this way. When a foreigner, oh let's say an American, visits an Asian country, perhaps China, I would bet that the citizens there would have a hard time pronouncing English names as well. Surely that's a hard language to learn.

Ms. Brown, with all due respect, the reason why Asian Americans and other foreigners try to keep their ethnic name as much as possible, even after its transliteration, is because it allows them to have have a connection to where their roots were from and to remind them of their identity that their parents had. Thank you for apologizing, although should this happen again, either coming from you or your fellow constituents, the backlash will be stronger.

>>>Link to article and Youtube video of Q&A session (or for a direct Youtube link to the section with the remarks, click HERE.)
>>>Advertising Age article about Brown's remarks and why names aren't just faceplates

Published Post Number:124/130
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