First Lady as a Part-time Job

An unprecedented decision was made and Chow Mei-ching carries it out as if it is the most natural thing to do. She went back to her work as the head of legal department, Mega International Commercial Bank, after her husband Ma Ying-jeou was elected as the president of Taiwan in March 2008.

A typical wife of a Taiwanese politician is a helper to attract women's vote, a celebrity to generate publicity in soft news, a back-up if the guy gets jailed and fails to run the campaign, a hit man when the guy wants to attack his political enemy without dirtying his own hands, and Mother Teresa when the guy is troubled by extra-marital affairs. What's special about Chow Mei-ching is that she does none of the above.

Ma Ying-jeou has been in politics for all his life and has been the media darling since the early 90s, but Chow Mei-ching was absent in the media coverage until 2002. She turned down all the interviews, and the comments she made about Ma was hardly favorable: "undoubtedly he works hard; but he also has good looks and good luck and that helps a lot." "It seems that every woman in Taiwan idolizes Ma but he manages to marry someone who doesn't."

In the presidential campaign Chow couldn't avoid the media as much as she used to. In the final days of the campaign she stumped for Ma and kept low-profile: she said "thank you" to whatever questions the journalists raised. Yet she was portrayed by most media as sincere and modest for the fact that she shook hands with Ma's supporters and did 90-degree bow.

After Ma was elected as mayor of Taipei, Chow Mei-ching spent time finding a parking space every morning as a citizen, although as a spouse she has the right to get a parking permit. Now Ma is the president-elect and Chow chooses to live her life as a professional woman. Some people express their concern about the conflict of interest Chow might encounter, but Chow argues that she provides legal advise to the bank and there is no benefit involved.

According to the poll of Apple Daily, the newspaper with the second biggest readership in Taiwan, Chow's choice to continue her career is supported by 55.58% of the respondents, and the survey conducted by the United Daily confirms this trend with the supporting rate of 48%. It shows that women and the youngsters demonstrate stronger support. Even among those who voted against Ma, it is the majority opinion that Chow can keep her job if she wants.

Chow seals her marriage in the private arena and acts as if she doesn't remember having a husband with political power. She rejects to share what her husband has. By doing that, she makes a powerful statement that she is an individual who can not be reduced and belittled to a "wife", someone defined by her marital status. When she requests the public not to address her as "first lady" or "Madam Ma", it is an independent woman talking.

What Chow doesn't remember is what Hillary Clinton couldn't forget when she was first lady. Clinton used that opportunity to exercise the influence on policies despite the fact that it goes against the democratic principle of accountability. If the health care policy works, can we promote Hillary Clinton? When it failed, could we demote her? As first lady her influence on politics derived mainly and solely from her husband and that makes her the appendage, the second sex.

Hillary Clinton proves her capability and competence by running and winning the campaign as a senator. Her ambition in politics was interpreted as unconventional or even subversive, but as far as I am concerned, her achievement is shadowed by the compromises she made and the shortcut she took as first lady. A first lady later runs for presidency is no legend; a woman taking first lady as a part-time job, is the legend.

Relevant articles:
All the President's women
Chow Mei-ching: the career-minded first lady
Taiwan's prospective first lady sets an example

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Bothered

"Ernesto being who he was, was terribly bothered by what he had seen."

--"The True Story of Che Guevara", a documentary

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The American Hero

A Fistful of Dollars is a brief history of what the U.S. did and is still doing to the rest of the world. They enter a foreign little town, learn the politics and current antagonism. They set the two sides into serious fight to benefit from the conflict. Then they let the vicious eliminates the not-so-vicious. At the end they finish it off and feel good about themselves.

But Clint Eastwood-- is he handsome!

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Audrey Hepburn and Social Capital

At first I know her as an icon of people growing up in the 60s, but I am too young for that. Until recently I got to watch her movies and know a little more about her than big eyes and bony face.

Love in the Afternoon, Roman Holiday, My Fair Lady, How to Steal a Million, and Breakfast at Tiffany's; watched in that order. When I thought she could only do the elegant naive princess, there is the vulgar poor girl in My Fair Lady impressing everyone with her almost primitive, untamed strength. Yet no less adorable, desirable, lovable.

Contrary to the strength of Katherine Hepburn which comes from intellect and reasoning, Audrey Hepburn demonstrates the qualities that summon the good old days: innocence, trust, simplicity, faith in humanity. She opens up for strangers and the chance meetings all turn out to be a memorable encounter if not more. In almost each of the movies we see her wash her hair, brush her teeth, in pajama, ear plugs and blindfold. We as the audiences are not the only one who sees it; she does that in someone's presence in the scenes. She is unarmed... with make-up though.

I am doing readings about "social capital" for my thesis. Put in plain English, social capital is the trust among people that can be used to reduce cost by avoiding unnecessary conflict, or enhance productivity by cooperation and sharing. That's what Audrey Hepburn stands for: to overcome the social disguise, appeal to common decency, and come to a true connection.

A dream of everyone: harmony and reconciliation with the universe. In Chinese it can be expressed as "天人合一": sky/people/unite/one, meaning: the universe and the people are united as one. That's the ideal and here is the reality: Do the Katherine Hepburn thing every now and then but spare a place for Audrey Hepburn, in case the Eden is found.

who were so dark at heart they might not speak
a little innocence will make them sing

--e.e. cummings

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Cats and Dogs

English is not my first language, so I experience funny feelings which result in wacky questions such as, "when you say 'pussycat' do you think of 'pussy'?"

Nobody does. But that's how I get to know this anecdote. An actress was on a talk show and she had her cat sitting on her lap. For a friendly conversation she said to the host, "do you want to pet my pussy?" The host replied with a straight face: "Sure! Move the cat."

Still, I can't get rid of the image of a dog in the word "underdog". Same thing happens when someone mentions "peacock".

I think of pea, of course.

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Fire in Germany

It was half past midnight and I picked up a smell of smoke. Walking around the apartment checking, I was sure that something was burning. I opened the door and there it was, misty white smoke in the stairway.

I went down to the third floor and rang the bell. "Fire," I said, and the black couple replied in German. I asked them to call the police. Only in recollection it occurred to me that the lady was half naked.

On the second floor, smoke squeezed out of a door but no one responded to the bell. I walked further down to wake up the first-floor neighbors and two ladies answered the door. "Fire," I said. They replied in German but I was not sure if they understood me. The smoke floated upward so there was nothing unusual at their door. "Smoke, smoke," I said. I left when they started to put on their coats.

All windows in the stairway were opened and a few neighbors kicked the unanswered door open. Smoke, more smoke happily welcomed us, and a flashlight didn't help too much. The police and the firemen came and took over. We waited on the pavement.

A stretcher was brought out, a smell of barbecue scented. Things were thrown out of the bedroom window: a comforter, a pillow, unidentifiable pieces and residues. I stared at the window of the second floor thinking, "No bus and no metro... If I am not allowed to go back in, I'll walk for ten minutes to wake Nandu up."

It turned out that Nandu was lucky. We got back to the building after forty minutes.

A friend later told me that "fire" sounds like "Feier" in German, meaning "party". I didn't know that I accidentally invited my neighbors to a midnight "Feier" with "smoke".

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Priyanka Leaving

Before leaving Germany, Priyanka came to stay with me for a few days then headed back home in Delhi. We got up at the interface of night and dawn, moving all the heaviness downstairs and sent them away. Leonard Cohen’s Alexandra Leaving haunted me in the head when we were in silence. And somehow the song stays.

“Say good-bye to Alexandra leaving
Say good-bye to Alexandra lost”

Alexandra Leaving is adapted from “The God Abandons Anthony”, a poem by Constantine P. Cavafy. Cavafy’s poem is about Markus Antonius’s last night in Alexandria, Egypt, knowing that the city would be taken by his enemy. In Cavafy’s depiction Anthony heard music and accepted his defeat “as if long prepared, as if courageous” when abandoned by his protector Dionysus. Leonard Cohen rewrites Cavafy’s poem and turns the city Alexandria into a woman Alexandra.

A woman left, a city lost. Alexandra Leaving starts with “suddenly the night has grown colder”, but that is not the case with Priyanka leaving. The spring arrives right after she left and it becomes brighter and warmer. No tears shed at the airport and life goes on in both Delhi and Hamburg. In my room there is still Leonard Cohen playing and on my book shelf there is still William Stafford standing.

There is nothing lost but something gained. The genuine conversation is still present in the room. That’s why things are better.
“We should have done this earlier,” said Priyanka.
“Yeah we should but we wouldn’t. We would only do this when you are leaving. If you leave in May we’ll do this in May.” And we laughed.

After a cigarette outside the airport (guess who is the one smoking), we came back to the end of the queue before the security and that’s where the departure began. “I’ll write to you and you can reply in your relaxed way… now I know you.” I laughed and she left.

“As someone long prepared for this to happen,
Go firmly to the window. Drink it in.
Exquisite music. Alexandra laughing.
Your firm commitments tangible again.”

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Kawabata

Yasunari Kawabata, 1968 Nobel Prize winner. I read Thousand Cranes and Snow Country, not moved or shocked as I expected. His novels seem to be incomplete with interstice, like he opened the cage and had all the rats racing but couldn't get them back. His novels are out of his own hands and he failed to do something about it.

Yet his short stories are great. It's neat and simple as Chekhov, but deviant with a Japanese touch. Here's my favorite: 'Canaries'.

It's a letter from a man to his ex-mistress. It goes like this.

Sorry I have to break our agreement to write to you. I can no longer take care of the canaries you gave me. I remember you bought them from different shops and kept them in a cage symbolizing you and me, and also a reminder, a souvenir. But they are dying now, because the person who feeds them, my wife, has passed away. I thought of the possibility to release them or sell them back to the store, but the former will kill them and the latter is a defection to your gift. The fact is, the canaries live till today as my memory of you is due to my wife's effort, that explains why I fell in love with you, madam-- My wife took the responsibility of daily life so I didn't need to pay attention to the difficulties and had the luxury to love. So madam, may I kill the canaries and bury them with my wife?

--An old entry from an old blog

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A Kid with a Balloon

I bumped into "Out of Africa" on HBO. I went to that movie when I was in high school and I fell asleep. When I woke up, I got confused with the twin brothers. Having heard my experience, everyone said, "What are you talking about? There is no twin brothers in Out of Africa."

A good twenty years later, I can relate myself to the theme of the movie: freedom vs. love. I'm touched by Maryl Streep's performance but I'm more a Robert Redford in life who needs to be away from time to time. Not away to be with another woman, although we cannot rule out that possibility; not away to hunt, although sometimes it is; he is away because he needs to be away from maybe everything, including the woman he truly loves.

I am a kid with a balloon in my hand. It is too often that I get invited to a house but the door closes as soon as I enter and shuts out my balloon. This time I'm going to tell the host, "I want my balloon."

--An old entry from an old blog

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The Lexus, Olive Tree, Globalization and Its Discontents

I read two books regarding globalization: The Lexus and the Olive tree, and Globalization and Its Discontents.

The Lexus and the Olive Tree was well written, the author, Thomas L. Friedman is a journalist with a wide range of working experiences, and he is an exceptional story-teller. The title itself reflects his style: he uses the Lexus to refer to the trend of modernized, precisely-programmed technology, rapid-paced nowadays; and the olive tree refers to tradition, cultural beliefs and faith, ethnic heritage, etc. A sucessful path of globalization will require a balance between the modern and the traditional.

Friedman argues that globalization is a set of neutral principles, as well as an unavoidable trend; nobody is in charge of globalization, you will benefit from it if, and only if, you are able to follow the rules. You better be fast; no, you must be faster. You better make sure that your government steps aside from the free market and keep the information transparent as much as possible, or the hot money will disappear in a second and your stock market will collapse and everybody goes bankrupt.

So who's to blame if you lose everything in the process of globalization? Since nobody is in charge, it is no one else but yourself to blame. You should have developed a more democratic system and a freer economy so you have a chance to win the game.

To my surprise, Taiwan was seen as an excellent model of a well-adaptive country. In 2000 when the book was published, the author thought that Taiwan is number one in Asia regarding free press and democracy. As an insider I see flaws and injustice in our system, not to mention that China keeps casting a shadow over us.

There are people against globalization. But in Friedman's view, they protest to demand a bigger share, which in turn proves that globalization is a welcome trend.

It is quite a different vision in Globalization and Its Discontents. The title is a parody of Sigmund Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents. The author, Joseph E. Stiglitz is the winner of Nobel Prize in economy in 2001, and what he sees is that there is nothing transparent in the decision-making of the International Monetary Foundation (IMF), while the third world countries are constantly under the threat of being cut off from international aid for not offering enough information, i.e. not transparent enough.

He vividly describes how the IMF messed up with poor countries in Africa and Asia by coercing a standardized policy upon them. IMF demanded an African country to speed in privatization of banks ignoring the fact that most people there lived on agriculture and didn't know much about western banking system. As a result, there were 14 banks folded up in a year and the society was in a crisis.

The IMF is powerful because it is in charge of loans. Stiglitz points out that there were several bias in the thoughts of IMF: 1) They are over-optimistic about the market and over-pessimistic about the government, but even Adam Smith was never that naive about the free market. In fact, the very idea of IMF is to create a public force to intervene when the market doesn't work well, and that happens from time to time. But in reality what IMF did is to shove off any public forces and rely solely on the market.

2) The decision-makers of IMF are with backgrounds of finance and banking, so they care too much about inflation and too less about unemployment, but the latter is a social glue. A society with high unemployment rate will pay a high price in crimes, riots and other forms of splits.

In the economist's view, the globalization is not a neutral, impartial principles; the Department of Finance of the U.S. is behind the scenes of IMF. With good intentions, maybe; but wrong policy, and more importantly, wrong way to reach the conclusion.

Friedman is right about that we want globalization. But he may distort the goal of anti-globalization campaign: not to reverse the Lexus back to the olive tree; but to pursue a fair world where poverty is diminished.

--An old entry from an old blog, before Erasmus Mundus

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Forever Barbie

I am reading Forever Barbie: the unahthorized biography of a real doll by M.G. Lord. It's about the history of Barbie, who's behind the doll and is it the reason women dying on diet, etc. I dislike dolls personally, it's too girlie. (For the same reason I don't like yoga until I learned that a butch friend is doing yoga and it does her good.) But it's fun to read M.G. Lord, as a Barbie's fan who owns the very original no.1 doll, to analyze the business.

I'm not sure if Lord thinks herself a feminist, be it yes or no, we all are familiar with the feminist critique of Barbie-- it's part of the propaganda for being slim. But what concerns me more is why women collaborate with the (harmful) idea? It will not change a thing if we put the blame on dolls, it's too easy. Men are ridiculed about their bodies too and they manage to survive it, transcend it and laugh about it.* It makes more sense to empower women in the same manner.

The book is fun in explaining the sizes. Why does Barbie's waist as small as a honeybee? The designer explains that Barbie wears "real" clothes, i.e. the same fabric and similar complexity as women's wear. In the waist, there will be 4 layers of fabric. And in Barbie's size, her waist will be wider than her hip with extra 4 layers of fabric; so they have no choice but make the doll in a drastic shape.

It could be a smart excuse, but who cares? It's a creative way to lie if it is one.

Another size issue is about Ken. They gave Ken a small size penis, unerected of course. Some suggested to have Ken's short painted on the doll, so little girls won't get scared or embarrassed when they undress the doll. Others said no, "You will see all the girls sit together trying to peel it off!"

--An old entry from an old blog

*added today. Dedicated to the victims of the heated comments about some of my dear classmates whom I won't name.

Technorati Tags:barbie, m. g. lord, feminism

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How Small is the World?

The science of networks doesn't sound interesting, but how about the idea that you are only six degrees away from anyone in the world? Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks by Mark Buchanan and Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age by Duncan Watts deal the popular notion with scientific inquiry that help us to see the hidden desire and fear of our time.

Psychologist Stanley Milgram is the first scholar to bring up the "small world". In 1967, Milgram conducted an experiment in which he sent letters to 300 people in the U.S. and ask them to forward the letter to a designated target, a stock broker in Boston. To his and everyone's surprise, the average number of letter travel is six-- the world is much smaller than we thought! The idea of a small world got more and more popular and was adopted in a play and a movie.

Milgram had always been a controversial figure, but his flawed theory didn't get busted this time until 2002. Klienfeld examined Milgram's data and found that it was not random at all. There were 100 of them lived in Boston instead of alleged Nebraska; and another 100 persons were investors of stock who reasonably have a fair chance to know how to reach a stock broker. There were 96 persons out of 300 qualified as "random"; and only 18 among them successfully completed the assignment.

Milgram was proved to be defective, but the six degrees of separation survived. Duncan Watts applies mathematical approach on social network and supposes that six may be the right figure. But is a world with six degrees of separation a small world? Is six small at all? Watts says no, six is huge.

Start it from me, the first degree of separation would be someone I personally know, say, a friend Ling, a social activist devoted to migrant workers' rights. The second degree is one of her acquaintance whom I don't know, it could be a Philippine woman working in Taiwan. The third degree could be the father of the Philippine woman, a farmer or a coal-miner; and I can hardly go on because I am dragged to a world that I know almost nothing about and this is just the third degrees of separation. I will be easily connected to a Martian in the eighth degree.

Mathematicians who set foot in this sociological arena do acknowledge the fact that human network doesn't exactly resemble a piece of paper with a few dots on it. There are some factors to be known that segregate people into clusters, like class, gender, geography, language, etc. It turns out to be that the link between clusters is extremely powerful, sometimes determinant.

Here comes another fascinating concept: "the strength of weak ties", as Mark Granovetter called it. When looking for a job, your acquaintances will be more helpful compared with close friends, because your acquaintances are capable of taking this information to another "cluster" while your friends probably locate in the same cluster. Weak ties are especially important in creating a trend, a fashion, or a craze.

I wonder how many weak tie is used connecting two persons in six degrees of separation? None of the studies mentioned in these two books seems to answer this question. A weak tie is actually a giant leap between clusters, and the average number of weak tie may be an even better indicator than the number of degrees of separation.

Another interesting question would be the definition of "connection" or "link". In mathematics it's easy: You draw a couple of nodes and take a ruler to draw a line to connect them, you create connections or links. But human connection is more complicated than that: how weak is the weak tie? In psychological experiments mentioned above, they use the lowest level of interaction, which is the conveyance of insensitive information, and my assumption is that it could be the maximum load of a weak tie. Add a little debate on it and it will split-- that's what makes it a "weak" tie in the first place.

The prevalence of six degrees of separation is itself a phenomenon worthy of exploring. There seems to be little resistance since it was introduced. The idea of a small world is comforting when in reality we feel intimidated by the world's immensity and by people's indifference; we need a theory to tell us: in a mystical way we ALL are connected; nobody is alone although it appears to be so.

--An old entry from an old blog, before Erasmus Mundus

Technorati Tags:network, six degree, small world, nexus, duncan watts, stanley milgram, klienfeld, weak ties, mark granovetter,

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Touched by an Angel

When a child was a child, he’d ask, why am I me and not you? In Wings of Desire the question comes up repeatedly and it provides the context of an angel with the keen aspiration to become human. Being an angel in this movie means complete altruism. Angels walk around the city to find people and help them. If an angel is on a train it’s not because he has a destiny, but because he locates a sad face on the train that can use some comfort.

Being a human, on the other hand, means the sensibility: the ability to taste, to feel, to touch, to be seen and to be heard; that is, to LIVE. Thus an angel is someone who is deprived of a life. An angel is an observer and helper of human lives, he casts his attention on people and nobody returns his attention because he is invisible and what he does is invisible. The supposedly poetic question turns out to be a corny complaint, “why me?”

That is where I start to feel regret for Wim Wenders. Despite making an original movie loaded with artistic images, he missed the possibility to deepen the story. He could have explored the dilemma of being an angel and a human by showing the inescapable sorrow and stupid worries of ordinary human lives, but instead he granted the converted angel with a life in which his dreams come true. Two ex-angels both seem happy with their choices and the other angel looks gloomy. What if the three of them reveal some self-doubt and contemplate on the “to be or not to be”, the ultimate question of being?

The trapeze once gets ridiculed about being an angel and the real angel standing beside her was shocked for a moment. As much as a puncture of laughter for the audience, it implies that the woman possesses a certain quality that can relate to an angel or allow an angel to relate to her. Unfortunately the film fails to build it up in the part and the actress fails to deliver the divine charm. And again I am thinking this, will it be better if the angel is not attracted to a woman and we don’t interpret his desire of being human in terms of love? What if the angel just wants to get a life and experience everything? Wouldn’t it be with great philosophical quality if he is driven to transform because he asks himself, “who am I and why am I the way I am?” Wouldn’t it be worth some thoughts if he makes the transformation a journey toward self-discovery, instead of a journey toward love?

I guess it’s not fair to comment on a film in a way that almost rewrites it. Let’s just say that it’s because an angel touched my shoulders when I watched the movie and he inspires me so much that he becomes visible to me.

--An old entry from an old blog

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