Something About Money

Two news stories caught my attention last week. The first dealt with an Indian girl who hanged herself after being refused 1 rupee to buy food at school. Sania Khatun did not usually eat anything at school. When she saw some friends eating some rice, she asked her mother for 1 rupee so she could eat as well (44 rupees=1 US dollar). She was refused the money and, when her mother returned home that night, Sania was hanging from the ceiling. Think about that: for 1 US dollar you could have provided Sania with 44 bowls of rice. The second news story that caught my attention last week dealt with the value of Bill Gates. According to Forbes Magazine, Bill Gates is the richest man in the United States with a net worth of $51 billion. How does this guy sleep at night? Think about what Gates could accomplish if he gave half of his fortune to feed the poor in India. $25 billion would buy 1,096,875,000,000 bowls of rice in India, and he would still have $26 billion left! If Katrina taught the United States anything it's that you don't have to look to India or Africa to find poverty. Look in your back yard, Bill!

Something About Anger

While I was home this Summer I purchased the first 4 seasons of "Seinfeld". It truly is my favorite television show of all time. I read online that seasons 5 and 6 will be released this Christmas. Needless to say, I've been watching a lot of Seinfeld lately. My mother hates this show and complains evertime I watch it at home. "Why are they yelling at each other?" "Why don't they just stop yelling?" yells my mother as I'm watching my favorite sitcom. Another show I like, but I don't really know why, is "Everybody Loves Raymond." This is one show me and my mother both enjoy. Over the Summer I was bored so I downloaded all 9 seasons of Raymond. As I watched the episodes I realized a familiar tone: every episode has yelling! As I lay in bed last night I compared the two series. On Seinfeld the characters are angry at their friends, themselves, and at life in general. The good episodes have the characters angry at all three. On Raymond the characters are angry at their family members, usually one family memeber in particular (apparently everybody hates Raymond). That said, if you're going to be angry at someone or something, would you rather have it be your friends, yourself, life or your family? The well balanced person would tell you not be angry at anything. Gee, a comedy without yelling. That doesn't sound funny at all. In other news, I'm sick. In fact, I knew I would be sick before I felt sick. When I started teaching on Tuesday maybe 25% of my students had runny noses and were coughing. Sure enough by Thursday I had the same symptoms. I'm about half way through editing and re-sizing my Hong Kong pictures. I should have them posted by Monday Korean time.

Something About Hong Kong

I got back from Hong Kong late Monday night. The plane was 20 minutes late getting into Seoul. I literally ran through the airport to get through immigration an to the airport buses. I got to the train station 10 minutes before it left. I had a good time in Hong Kong. I decided against Macau and headed off to Disneyland. I really don't have time to write much right now. I'll tell you more later. Here are some pics:

Something About Peace

In his address to the United Nations, Tony Blair suggested that if every person was offered peace instead of war, they would always choose peace. Therefore, we should encourage as much peace as we can. The trouble with this idea is that it ignores the reality of evil in this world. No matter how many people "give peace a chance," there will always be someone who would rather live without it. Always. Have a nice day.

Something About Dreams

I've decided to start a dream blog. You can find it here: http://somethingaboutmydreams.blogspot.com/

Something About Suggestions

Okay, I need some help with my upcoming travel plans. I'm going to Hong Kong on Sept. 16th and returning to Korea on the 19th. My dilemma is with Sunday, September 18th. I have two ideas in my mind but I can only do one. I can either take a ferry to Macau and tour around the island or I can go to Hong Kong Disney Land. Which do you think I should do? I swear, one minute I'm set on Macau and the next it's Disney Land. Where should I go?

Something About Bushisms

While speaking to residents of Poplarville, Mississippi, President Bush was quoted as saying:

"again, I understand if you're saying to yourself, well, it's hard for me to realize what George W is saying because I've seen the rubble and I know what has happened to my neighbors."

George, it isn't that we don't realize what you are saying, it's that we don't understand what you are saying. Some examples:

• "Americans should be prudent in their use of energy during the course of the next few weeks. Don't buy gas if you don't need it." George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 1, 2005
  
• "The best place for the facts to be done is by somebody who's spending time investigating it." George W. Bush, on the probe into how CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity was leaked, Washington D.C., July 18, 2005
  
• "I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep on the soil of a friend." George W. Bush, on visiting Denmark, Washington D.C., June 29, 2005
  
• "I was going to say he's a piece of work, but that might not translate too well. Is that all right, if I call you a 'piece of work'?" George W. Bush to Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg, Washington, D.C., June 20, 2005
  
• "The relations with, uhh ?Europe are important relations, and they've, uhh ?because, we do share values. And, they're universal values, they're not American values or, you know ? European values, they're universal values. And those values ?uhh ? being universal, ought to be applied everywhere." George W. Bush, at a press conference with European Union dignitaries, Washington, D.C., June 20, 2005
  
• "You see, not only did the attacks help accelerate a recession, the attacks reminded us that we are at war." George W. Bush, on the Sept. 11 attacks, Washington, D.C., June 8, 2005
  
• "And the second way to defeat the terrorists is to spread freedom. You see, the best way to defeat a society that is doesn't have hope, a society where people become so angry they're willing to become suiciders, is to spread freedom, is to spread democracy." George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., June 8, 2005
  
• "It seemed like to me they based some of their decisions on the word of and the allegations by people who were held in detention, people who hate America, people that had been trained in some instances to disassemble that means not tell the truth." George W. Bush, on an Amnesty International report on prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay, Washington, D.C., May 31, 2005 (Listen to audio)
  
• "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." George W. Bush, Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005 (Listen to audio)
  
• "We discussed the way forward in Iraq, discussed the importance of a democracy in the greater Middle East in order to leave behind a peaceful tomorrow." George W. Bush, Tbilisi, Georgia, May 10, 2005
  
• "I think younger workers first of all, younger workers have been promised benefits the government promises that have been promised, benefits that we can't keep. That's just the way it is." George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 4, 2005
  
• "It means your own money would grow better than that which the government can make it grow. And that's important." George W. Bush, on what private accounts could do for Social Security funds, Falls Church, Va., April 29, 2005
  
• "It's in our country's interests to find those who would do harm to us and get them out of harm's way." George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005
  
• "We expect the states to show us whether or not we're achieving simple objectives like literacy, literacy in math, the ability to read and write." George W. Bush, on federal education requirements, Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005
  
• "He understands the need for a timely write of the constitution." George W. Bush, on Prime Minister Iyad Allawi of Iraq, Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005
  
• "Well, we've made the decision to defeat the terrorists abroad so we don't have to face them here at home. And when you engage the terrorists abroad, it causes activity and action." George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005
  
• "But Iraq has have got people there that are willing to kill, and they're hard-nosed killers. And we will work with the Iraqis to secure their future." George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005
  
• "We have enough coal to last for 250 years, yet coal also prevents an environmental challenge." George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 20, 2005
  
• "Part of the facts is understanding we have a problem, and part of the facts is what you're going to do about it." George W. Bush, Kirtland, Ohio, April 15, 2005
  
• "I'm going to spend a lot of time on Social Security. I enjoy it. I enjoy taking on the issue. I guess, it's the Mother in me." George W. Bush, Washington D.C., April 14, 2005
  
• "We look forward to analyzing and working with legislation that will make it would hope put a free press's mind at ease that you're not being denied information you shouldn't see." George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 14, 2005
  
• "I want to thank you for the importance that you've shown for education and literacy." George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., April 13, 2005
  
• "I understand there's a suspicion that we're too security-conscience." George W. Bush, Washington D.C., April 14, 2005
• "If they pre-decease or die early, there's an asset base to be able to pass on to a loved one." George W. Bush, on Social Security money held in private accounts, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, March 30, 2005
  
• "In this job you've got a lot on your plate on a regular basis; you don't have much time to sit around and wander, lonely, in the Oval Office, kind of asking different portraits, 'How do you think my standing will be?'" George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., March 16, 2005
  
• "In terms of timetables, as quickly as possible, whatever that means." George W. Bush, on his time frame for shoring up Social Security, Washington D.C., March 16, 2005
  
• "I repeat, personal accounts do not permanently fix the solution." George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., March 16, 2005
  
• "This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table." George W. Bush, Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 22, 2005
  
• "If you're a younger person, you ought to be asking members of Congress and the United States Senate and the president what you intend to do about it. If you see a train wreck coming, you ought to be saying, what are you going to do about it, Mr. Congressman, or Madam Congressman?" George W. Bush, Detroit, Mich., Feb. 8, 2005

Notice that these quotes or from this year alone.