To Johnny Hipster and Cupcake Susie: "I hear you; and I feel your pain !"

Amidst all the screaming, insults, bashing and self-righteousness, I
respectfully voice my lament about the tone of the conversation between
those of us who are supportive of the Beijing Olympics games and the
imperative of "sports without politics" and those out there in the
Western world, especially in America, who are screaming "Bloody Coca
Cola."

"FREE TIBET." "GENOCIDE DARFUR." "FREE BURMA.""FREE MARIJUANA.""*#@! CHINA" :-)

Incidentally, Coca-Cola's slogan in its China "cool" marketing blitz
directed inside China is indeed "red," in the capital RED.

Frankly, I sincerely wish that in the next few months leading up to
08/08/08 at the opening ceremonies at the Bird's Nest stadium designed by French
architects Herzog and De Meuron in Beijing, we all can tamp down the rhetoric and just focus on the Olympian athletes.

Consider learning what our Frenchmen have designed for the Olympics games in
their "Bird's Nest" design, not "Bird's nest soup," by the way, by clicking on
the hyperlink below:

http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/03/07/beijings-olympic-stadium-by-herzog-and-demeuron/

Many of our World Olympians have trained very very very hard, in the
last four years, from all over the world, from every niche and every society, in
their poignant struggle for their day in the sun at the World Olympics games.

Unfortunately, it is not to be, because "depolitization" is out; "stridency" and "mau mau" are in.

I understand it. And I am genuinely sincere when I say to Johnny Hipster and
Cupcake Susie in America, Pierre and Monique in France, Hans and Erika in
Germany, my Cannucks from Canada (often disrespectfully mistaken as "Americans," good grief), and our Aussie mates from down under (now being led by Kevin Rudd, the only Chinese-speaking Western leader), and all those who are so passionate about bashing China and the Beijing Olympics games:

" I FEEL YOUR PAIN. I HEAR YOU. And I UNDERSTAND why you are doing this."

All said, being straddled between EAST and WEST, having lived in both worlds, I can understand the visceral gut reactions from both side of the barricades.

We need to work hard at bridging that gap, without the politicians from both EAST and WEST, mucking up the dialogue.

Here's "the Inconvenient Truth," adapting from Al Gore. (*Poor Al,
the U.S. President that could have, who meant to do good but is now doing well
as an investment banker selling "global warming." ) :-)

We understand governments, from all over the globe, are likewise becoming less and less effective in really addressing the crises of our times, from wars, the environment, jobs and the unraveling of civil society. They can't cope and they are gridlocked by fear, official corruption, special interests, and bad government bureaucracy.

Just look at your presidential campaigns in America happening right now. All spin. No substance. All BO. not Barrack Obama. But Body Odor oozing out from your political armpits. Full of chutzpah, rhetoric, and absolutely signifying nothing. Nada. Rien.

And our gasoline prices are hitting the roof. And many of us are living paycheck to paycheck, if we still have jobs. Just look at America's midwest, in America's heartland, the pain is there. And much of this is now painfully blamed upon CHINDIA, India and China, the economic engine and
factory in the new age of globalization.

Getting back to what I would like to say to my Western adversaries across the barricades:

As Rodney King, the African-American victim of a police beating in 1991which sparked the L.A. race riots with horrific violence pled in the heat, fire and violence right before his eyes, which I believe was the most poignant and meaningful statement I have ever heard in times of disaster, he said,

"Fellas, Stop. Please Stop. Can we all please all get along ? "

At this time, at this juncture, although I am not a victim,
but right in the middle of this senseless screaming inane global "food fight"
between the WEST vs. CHINA and its people, I can't help feeling the pathos,
sentiments, and feelings that Rodney King showed at Ground Zero at South Central L.A. in 1991.

It is not easy living in the WEST these days, especially for our youths.

We all feel the pain and suffering in the world, the unraveling of humanity coming unglued from the forces of our times -- hypermaterialism, hyperconsumerism, greed, wars, environmental degradation and recklessness, rudeness, incivility, and hooliganism.

Yes, we experience the scourge of drugs and addictives in our Western
cities. Where victims of drugs are wallowing in our streets, ignored, abandoned,
jettisoned by their own government no longer capable of providing the last
refuge, the safety net which is a "last resort" when all else fails, especially
family care and support.

China, too, once experienced the scourge of opium, and it devastated Chinese society at the turn of the century, thanks to the Brits and the Americans, for teaching the Chinese how to do drugs, and exporting en masse opium harvested from South Asia, to try to even the "imbalance" in trade between China and the British world of "hongs," and other outside Western traders, dreaming of "selling oil for the millions of lamps" in China's humongous mass of Chinese.

Today, we are seeing again similar strident screams of passionate and
vitriolic attacks about each other and each other's society.

Look, I am here, and I am there.

I know what the Iraq and Afghan war have wrought in draining the energy and resources of America, a misguided war based on the paranoia after 9-11.

I know how bad the Western economies are today. If you think America is bad, try France, where at least 20% if not more, of French youth are unemployed and don't have a job.

Likewise, in British society, the idle rich upper classes in London are keeping a tight lip, while the British working class can't make ends meet in London's astronomical high costs of living.

I know what it is like to be a downsized worker. I know and feel how many American blue collar workers and now even high tech workers are confronting the new forces of globalization, where Americans are mortified by the "sucking sounds," in the words of your nut billionairre, Ross Perot, of NAFTA, and all those jobs evaporating and going to CHINDIA, i.e. China and India.

I know what it is like to be a college student in America, i.e. overeducated, strapped with student loans up one's gazooka, and faced with the prospect of unemployment in the outside world . Even students graduating from elite schools are being told not to report to Bear Stearns because Wall Street has melted.

Welcome to "American Idol." Even one of our very own, William Hung, had to abandon engineering school at UC Berkeley, and shifted course and became a "celebrity" Chinese-American idol, even as he was heckled, booed, and laughed at during the competition.

Well, poor William Hung, is laughing all the way to the bank in Asia-Pacific, where he is admired, celebrated, and worshiped by adoring female fans as the ultimate American "success" story. You see, he outsmarted the American hipsters and cupcakes, and played his game tight, "Anything to get notoriety, and show me the money !"

Look at your Paris Hiltons. No talent. No brains. Not even heart. And
she is raking it in. Thanks to Hollywood and your American news media, into
banality, vulgarism, and downright sensationalism.

I can do it too if I have the physique and the body, and take my panties off too before your sordid rag sheets you call American news media.

All said, Johnny Hipster and Cupcake Susie, I say this to you:

"China is going through many of the same problems happening in the WEST today. Their ordinary masses of people know that the forces of globalization upon them, as upon the rest of the world, are unleashing yet to be known challenges yet to be forded by humanity, much less understood for its long-term."

"The problems of an ultra-overheated economy, rapid modernization, dazzling growth are exacting social and environmental consequences which must be fixed."

" Yes, there are human rights issues which will have to be improved. Yes,
there are issues of narrowing the widening the wealth gap inside China. Yes, there are problems with the environment and ecological
sustainability."

" All of these are valid issues that have to be resolved sooner rather than later.""But you know what, we Chinese, inside and outside China, with many rational and calm and most important, CONSTRUCTIVE voices from the West, are working our darn hardest to fix those problems."

"We got it."

" We may not get there immediately. But we will get there one day.
It is our problem. Not yours."