Group of Zero

June 28

We got up later today. The morning was more leisurely. We were both tired.

We walked towards Wenceslas Square and stopped at the Museum of Communism. The museum is housed in one floor of an older building. It is a small museum but we spent over two hours there. Ironically, it is located on the second floor in the same building as a casino. The ground floor is a huge McDonald restaurant. Lenin, eat your heart out! Karl Marx, you gambled and lost!

The museum occupies only half a floor (the other half is a casino). It is packed with information about how the communists took over Czechoslovakia after the Second World War, what life was like under the communist regime, the attempts for change and reform by the Czech people, the subsequent brutal crackdowns/invasions by the Soviets, the Prague Spring movement and the Velvet Revolution in 1989. There were several statues and busts of Lenin, Stalin, and Marx that had been removed from public display. Well, they were all busted and relegated to stare at each other in a small room indefinitely.

There is a short documentary about twenty minutes portraying the oppression under the Communist regime before the Prague Spring in 1968 and subsequent crackdown in 1969, the hard line leadership of President Hasek, Charter 77, and the events leading up to the student demonstrations in 1989. It shows actual footage of thousands of people crammed into Wenceslas Square and the police brutality towards the people resulting in many arrests.

We then walked around the corner and looked up the 750 metre-long Wenceslas Square (more like a boulevard with a median). At the very end is the very impressive National Museum. This street once bore the tank tread marks of more than one Soviet invasion, witnessed demonstrations by long-oppressed Czech people shouting for change, was the site of Jan Palach setting himself on fire in protest (a memorial has been set up in his honour), and was the birthplace of the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Today it is a bustling avenue of businesses, shops and boutiques, banks, hotels and restaurants. What a huge change in 20 years! It was hard to imagine the events that led to their freedoms they enjoy today.

As my personal reflection, repressive regime will eventually fail. No government, ideology or religion can dictate what one should think or do. Enlightening others to do good is great, forcing others to do what one think it is good is a great sin.

After returning to our hotel for a short rest, we ate at a Czech restaurant nearby – James tried roast boar, a Czech specialty. Then it was off to see Swan Lake ballet just down the street at Hibernia Theatre. It was really good. By the way, we forgot to mention how good the marionette performance of Don Giovanni was. It was quite comical with puppets about 3-4 feet tall. James was really impressed watching the puppeteers handling of the marionettes (you could see their hands and forearms at times).

Road sign to the Museum of Communism

Statue of King Wenseclas

Wenseclas Square

Lenin pointing to nowhere

National Museum

I exchange the netbook this morning. It may be difficult to find help. The tech guy came and took a look at it. Yep, it did not even boot up. He said it was a software problem. Well, I know that.

“Do you have the recovery discs?” he asked.

“No, they do not give out system discs now.” I answered. I thought techies should know that.

“It is a software problem. I have other things to do.” He left without doing anything. I stood there for a while. A older gentleman from the computer section asked me whether he could help me. I explained the situation. He asked the person at the customers service why the tech guy did not finish his job to fill in the paper work and give me a new netbook.

This older gentleman is from Indian decent. He said to me, “Only immigrants like us have any work ethics. These young folks do not work!”  He obviously saw that I am an immigrant too.

It seems he is correct in this case. The young techie cared less about customer service. It may not be his job description to file the paper work or go to the back to fetch a new machine for me, but he did not even ask people from those department to help. He tried to avoid any work that he can avoid. he might have thought, ” I am hired to fix computer hardware. Since this is a software problem, not my department.”

It is the people skills that get people hire. Some generation Y does not understand responsibility and hard work.

It has been a while since my last blog. Many things happened since then. School started. The union called for a strike. I had my first taste of protesting in front of the Provincial legislature. It was then called off at the last minute since a deal was struck. I have to vote to accept the deal tomorrow. It was a very stressful fortnight. http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1148436.html

The claim to be labour friendly NDP government gave over 341 million to the universities a year before they need to. They also set in the budget more than 80 million to buy back land that no one wants. This mismanagement leads to a big budget deficit. In turn, the NDP then claims there is no money to give a cost of living adjustment even though they gave all the teachers in the province a 2.9% increase. The number just does not add up. The NDP depends on the support of labour unions and public sector unions. I doubt that it will ever get a second term four years from now.

Well, at least I am still working this week. It would not be nice if I have to walk the picket.

In the mind of some Christians, their beliefs and understandings of God are the only correct ones. If anyone has a different image of God, they will all end up in hell.

I was searching in youtube on the opinions of the book “The Shack”. I cannot believe those negative comments. “How can God be portrayed as an African woman?” “How can Jesus be seen as a Middle Eastern man?” “How can god be so friendly with us?” Folks, it is a novel! William P. Young never claims it is theology! No wonder why the media portrays Christians as a close minded bigots. God is bigger than anyone of us can quantify. For those critics, give it a break, relax and have non-combative day!

I gave not much thought about Obama after he won the election. It is different this time. I do not quite understand the ruling of this judge. It just defiles any logic I know. If the news is reported correctly, she rejected the result of the examination just because one racial does not come out on top. The ruling did not find any evidence that the examination is racially biased towards one race or the other. The ruing only deals with the outcome of the examination simply does not fit the racial balance of the expectation of the officials and politicians.

I thought the judges are supposed to obey the existing laws and leave all politics aside. Apparently, the judges did not do that. If her logic holds, do the judges have to have quota to convict a predetermined percentage of blacks, whites, Asians, and Hispanics? If the outcome of convictions do not meet the criteria of the political taste, does the court have to throw out all its verdicts?

Examinations for a position are supposed to select the best of the candidates. If the examination is fair, one should accept the result. If the officials have to retest and retest until they achieve their desired racial mixed, than the examination becomes unfair because there is an inherent racial bias. The citizens have the right to demand the unbiased top achievers to be promoted, not a predetermined outcome.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124354041637563491.html

The media made Obama the savior of the world. The media agrees and praises everything he said. The multi-trillion budget which the US government will spend whatever they do not have to buy up failing banks, insurance companies, auto-makers, etc. is considered good government policy. The democrats preached against Wall streets, big banks, or any big businesses are bad for the poor people. They are the ones who are subsidizing the big guys now. People forget that US already has multi-trillions of debt before this recession. The extra debt will be added on to the existing debt. Does his administration really know how to handle the debt bomb?

I cannot imagine what 3.6 trillion of spending power and 1.75 trillion of deficit. It seems the Americans have no problems about the spending that kind of money. Obama is still hailed as the biggest hero of out times because he has the courage to spend all the money that the country does not have.

He is not afraid about the lender, mainly the Chinese. Usually, it is the rich to lend to the poor. This paradigm has shifted. The majority of the Chinese population is still poor. They are the ones who are financing the reckless spending and waste of the Americans. It does not matter the Republicans or the Democrats, the budget and trade deficits keep on growing.The government and the people just cannot cut the habit of overspending.

GM and other American automakers are asking to bail out again. The government has not choice but to cave in and hand out billions again. No matter how much the automakers take, it will not revive that sector unless they solve their structural problem – labour, pension, and health care cost are just too high.

It will take a structural reform for the society to change the spending habit. The generation Y believes the society owes them a good life. This may be a good time for them to learn they have to do something to make a living.

I watched the HBO documentary “The trials of Ted Haggard”. It was an very personal look at the days after this pastor fallen from grace. I have a few observations.

First, I can understand the reaction from the church elders. The church board of overseers fired him. I am not surprised by their action. Haggard preached on the the sin of homosexuality in all these years. He became a laughing stock of the community. Haggard reinforced the image of hypocrisy in the fundamentalist movement. He preached one thing and he practised the opposite. He was a liar and a deceiver. Haggard admitted to that. It was obvious that Haggard had to leave the church he founded.

Second, this is the point I did not understand from the documentary. It stated that Haggard signed an agreement that he would leave the State of Colorado. I can understand the elders of the New Life Church want Haggard get of out of town. American is a free country, Homosexuality is not a crime. Haggard and his family should be free to choose where they reside. How can a church dictate a person who has not committed any crime not to step foot in a State? What can legally prevent Haggard to live in the State of Colorado?

Third, I do not understand the hatred of some of the members of the New Life Church. The members were deceived by Haggard. They were angry and shocked. In comparison, Haggard’s sin is not telling the people that he had homosexual thoughts and tendency. Haggard admitted that his struggle of homosexuality and his belief in the Bible. It then manifested into voyeur acts of hiring a male prostitute, buying drugs and inducing another male member of the church. Those were all morally corrupt behaviour. I do believe that Haggard has to truly repent from his acts. He apparently repented from his action. He put the blame squarely on himself. He was trying to say nice things about all his accusers.

Fourth, we have to admit that human sexuality is complex. No one can explain how or why a person is a homosexual. Why does the fundamentalists highlight homosexuality as the number one sin? I know churches that open up to prison ministries. They accept convicted criminals into their congregation as the lives of the ex-convicts turn around. Homosexuality is not a crime (at least not in this country). It is not even classified as an illness. If Christians can accept repented ex-convicts into their congregation (as they should), why they cannot accept a person who struggle with their sexual identity (it is not even a crime)? If the concern is hypocrisy, we have to look deep inside. Jesus told the teachers of the law who bought in a woman caught in adultery, “If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” The crowd left. Jesus never condemned the woman. He just gently said, “Go and leave your life of sin.”

What would Jesus do with Ted Haggard? I believe he would said the same thing.

As the world wide recession is deepening, we can now witness the greatest American export. It is the financial crisis the US give to the whole world. Thanks to the innovation of the American financial brains trained in elite business schools, they dreamed up fancy schemes to make money for the investment banks and (of course) themselves. Now the whole world is in deep trouble. Those who came up with all these financial products never got punished. Instead, they received millions of bonuses and bail out money from the government to stay afloat (so that they can do it again).

The Chinese Premier is correct when he blamed the source of this financial crisis squarely on the US. The western media scream at the Chinese and its government if they smell any wrong doing by the Chinese. I did not hear or read much screaming by the western media pounding on the American financial institutions, government, regulating agencies, or its elite business schools on causing this financial crisis.

It was wrong for the Chinese to have a lip sync during the Olympics but it is just fine for the world renounced musicians to play to taped music. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/arts/music/23band.html?scp=1&sq=taped%20music&st=cse

The media criticized whatever the Chinese are doing – Tibet, Olympics, currency, international trade… It seems that whatever Obama does is just fine.