Refugees

Refugees arriving in Munich were met by welcoming crowds.Thumbs Up to Angela Merkel of Germany. Sorry but Thumbs Down to Stephen Harper of Canada.

Dear Prime Minister Harper, you said the root cause of the refugees was ISIS. No, please look back, way back, before ISIS came to existence. The root cause was Uncle Sam's Militarism and Interventionism, in meddling around with the affairs of other countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and more. You broke the vase, or helped break the vase, so you own it. There is no excuse not to fix it. Even if you think you did not break the vase, you must still help the refugees. Why? Many reasons, but here is one simple reason: because we are Canadians, and you are the Prime Minister of Canada.

    

Good Guys and Bad Guys in World Politics

Just finished watching a Youtube video of Lada Ray titled 'Putin's Gambit: Germany To Replace Ukraine As Russian Gas Transiter'.

Here are my thoughts and comments:

Lada Ray is a good political analyst and commentator. Sometimes she talks beyond the mundane. Her comments in this video and others tell me that she see things well from the Russian perspective. I agree with her that Putin is a great chess player. Of course, Uncle Sam depicts Russia as the bad and isolated guy. The truth is that Russia is not isolated. As to who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, please study, observe and decide for yourself.

In diplomacy, there are no bad guys. In war, you are the good guy and your enemy is the bad guy. In politics, the good guys and the bad guys are the same guys. An angel blinks his eyes and becomes a devil. A devil snaps his fingers and becomes an angel. Politicians are neither good nor bad. Politicians are politicians.

If you are interested in oil and pipeline politics, watch this video. It is about 21 minutes long. I feel sorry for the people in Ukraine. However you look at the situation in Ukraine, it is a loser, not a winner. Ukraine is not a good chess player. It is not even a player. It is the chess.

Ukraine is a chess game played by the two major players, the U.S. and Russia. Some NATO countries like Germany and France take side with the U.S. against Russia for external show, but work with Russia not-so-openly for their self interests. Peace! 

World Cup Women Soccer

Have been watching World Cup women soccer. In the opening game, Canada beat China 1-0. Christine Sinclair's penalty kick was near perfection. She deserved the respect of the Canadian fans. Beware of the German team. The German girls are fast and make good passes. It is a good bet that Germany may become the Champion. Let's see !!!

U.S. Sanction Against Russia

U.S. sanction against Russia, and probably also the dropping of oil prices, got to be an economic, geopolitical and currency war of the U.S. against Russia.

Does sanction work? Yes and No, if you ask Obama. For Cuba, with whom the U.S. has just re-established diplomatic relationship, Obama said No. For Russia, Obama said Yes. If it didn't work on small Cuba, having been proved for more than 50 years, how would it be possible to work and hurt big Russia ? Mr. President Obama, please tell us ! 

U.S. sanction would hurt Russia and make it difficult for Putin for a while, yes, but not for a long time. It won't take 50 years or more, like in the case of Cuba, to find out. We'll wait and see. 

Sanction, in my opinion, largely hurts only the people - your own people, those of your allies, and those of the sanctioned country you try to hurt, but not so much the elites and governments in power. 

U.S. sanction against Russia has pushed Russia even closer to China. It hurts not only Russia, but also Europeans who do business with Russia. Maybe Germany, France and a few other European countries didn't really like the sanction against Russia, but wouldn't dare not to "obey" Uncle Sam, being under political pressure to follow.

Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee died at the young age of 32. Today is the 40th anniversary of his death. Most people know he is the greatest martial artist of our time, but there are things that they may not know: Bruce was a child star in Hong Kong. Quentin Tarantino probably knows, as he was a fanatic of old Chinese movies, before he became a famous director in Hollywood. Besides being a child star, Bruce was a dancing contest champion in Hong Kong. He was also a street fighter there. His father wanted to make him stay out of trouble by sending him back to America where he was born.  

Bruce Lee is great, not only because of his superb martial arts and Chinese kung fu, but also because of his philosophy of life. He rejected the idea that Chinese kung fu must be kept for the Chinese people only. He defeated everyone who dared to prevent him from teaching Chinese kung fu to the Westerners. My opinion is that all the great people in this world belong to the whole humanity, not just to their own race, culture or country. My view is a cosmopolitan view, an all-in-the-family view, with one humanity, one world, one Planet Earth.

Aside from philosophy and opinion, these are some facts that many Bruce Lee fans do not know. Bruce is not only Chinese, but also American and partly German. How so? Bruce was born in San Francisco, so he is an American. His father Lee Hoi-Chuen was an actor in Chinese opera. His mother Grace Ho was a Eurasian of German and Chinese ancestry. My dear American and German friends, you can rightfully claim that Bruce Lee is partly yours. By the way, Bruce, like myself, grew up in British Hong Kong, which went back to Chinese rule in 1997. Dear Brits, yes, you can also claim a part of Bruce Lee. My dear Chinese friends, what the heck, let's be generous and share the great Bruce Lee with the whole world. We can't say no anyway. They have already taken a great portion of him. Rest in Peace, Bruce !