"YOU OWE THE USA!"

"WITHOUT THE AMERICANS YOU WOULD BE SPEAKING JAPANESE AND THE EUROPEANS WOULD BE SPEAKING GERMAN TODAY!"

Every time I hear crap like the above, I feel like throwing up. And I seem to be hearing more of it these days. Has Uncle Sam been churning up the propaganda now that the US economy is going downhill?

First of all, what's wrong with speaking German or Japanese? I actually did a one-year German language course back in university. When you speak only English, all your information is effectively censored by the English-speaking British and Americans. For instance, when I look for books on Germany, all I find are travel guides and biographies about Adolf Hitler. Germany is/was the biggest exporter in the world and nobody writes about it!


Second of all, China was actually conquered and occupied by Manchuria from 1644 to 1912 (the Qing Dynasty). Today you won't find Manchuria on a map! Manchuria was absorbed into China and is now Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning in northeastern China! Are the Chinese speaking Manchurian today? Nope, they are speaking Putonghua (or Mandarin)! The same would have happened to the Japanese if they had stayed in China long enough!



Third of all, the USSR - not the USA - defeated Nazi Germany. Look at the Soviet Union's sacrifice compared to America's. What the Yanks really did was to block the Russians from occupying Western Europe. So, without the US, Europe would been speaking Russian, not German!




Look at the USA's teeny-weeny contribution during WW2. The Americans like to over-rate their performance and take all the credit - with lots of help from Hollywood. And the historically-challenged folk swallow it without question. That's what happens when the English-speakers control the mass-media!

[Charts are from Wikipedia.]

US Military Records in East Asia

I had blogged this before but it is worth repeating.

The US military will never win another land war in East Asia.

They can certainly kill lots of people and cause enormous destruction. That's something the Yanks are still good at. You can call genocide an American speciality.

A PLA general (Zhu Chenghu) once said that China expects to lose ALL CITIES east of Xian in a war with the US. Have a look at the map below. That would include Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Wuhan, Nanjing, ... China obviously expects no mercy from the Americans. What mercy did the US warmongers show the Japanese, the Koreans and the Vietnamese? None.






















But let's have a look at Uncle Sam's less than sterling war performance in East Asia to put things into some perspective.

Largest surrender in US military history: Battle of Bataan, Luzon, Philippines. On 9 April 1942, 75,000 American and Filipino soldiers surrendered to the Japanese.


























Longest retreat in US military history: Korean War. The Chinese People's Liberation Army chased 140,000 American troops down the Korean peninsular from the border of China to Seoul in 1950.


























Longest war in US military history: Vietnam War (1965 to 1975). Uncle Sam lost 60,000 soldiers before getting kicked out of Vietnam.



From that brilliant record, I conclude that the US will NEVER win another land war in east Asia.

The Secret of Success

If you were to ask me what I thought is the secret of success, I would answer with one simple word: FOCUS. That is what it all boils down to. If you're learning music, for example, fix your mind on music. If possible do it 24/7. Eat, sleep and shit music. Dream music. Sweat music, bleed music, puke music. You'll find that true of a pianist like Lang Lang, I'm sure.



That's what China's Olympic stars are about too. They are taken away at a young age to devote themselves to sports and often don't see their parents for months! No half-measures for them.


How do the Chinese march in such straight lines in their parades? This is what they had to endure. No nonsense. No mucking around. No pain, no gain. Only single-minded determination to get the job done and done well.



















When you concentrate force and apply it to a single point, even a steel plate can be penetrated, as shown in this photo of a shaped charge going through armour.


























DISTRACTION is the antithesis of FOCUS. It comes in many forms: wine, women, song, religion, television, computer games, the stock market, financial problems, family feuds, noise, illness, ... anything that prevents one from concentrating on the task at hand.

In order to achieve any objective, one has to establish one's present position and decide where one wants to be. The journey between the here and now, and the desired destination is an obstacle course littered with DISTRACTIONS and problems.

I believe a lot of people drift along in life like a boat without oars, hoping and praying that the currents will transport them to a fate that is kind. The true achievers are FOCUSED. They know precisely what they want and have charted the course to get there. I know a girl who became the director of a publicly-listed company in her twenties. Perhaps someone had paved the way for her but she had the target in her sights and got there in double-time.

To FOCUS means to think about the the goal day and night, planning and scheming, probing and pushing, examining and re-examining, weaving, dodging, rolling with the punches, maneuvering around obstacles, driving ever onwards with gritted teeth and eyes fixated resolutely on that single final outcome, that ultimate end-result, with the all consuming, all encompassing obsession that overshadows every other thing.

Whether it's the right objective, whether you will still like yourself when you get there, whether the prize is worth the sacrifice, whether the end justifies the means, ... is another story.

If you know what you want bad enough, you know what you will have to do to get there. No two ways about it. FOCUS!

Sick Earth

I am reading Small is Beautiful by EM Schumacher. Apparently, people were highly optimistic back in the early 1970s, believing that the "problem of production" had been solved and that rich countries had only to be concerned with "education for leisure" while their poorer counterparts busyed themselves with "technology transfer". Indeed, those were the good old days.

The positive vibes have long gone and few people need convincing these days that planet earth is on the brink of major disaster. The Western economies are imploding, global warming is inducing global dread and people are no longer just mouthing off about sustainability but actually ACTING on it!

We're way past the point of no return, if you ask me.

Jonas Salk: If all the insects on earth disappeared, within 50 years all life on earth would disappear. If all humans disappeared, within 50 years all species would flourish as never before.

Not very flattering to our inflated egos, is it?

Schumacher: Nature always, so to speak, knows where and when to stop. Greater even than the mystery of natural growth is the mystery of the natural cessation of growth. There is measure in all natural things - in their size, speed or violence. As a result, the system of nature, of which man is a part, tends to be self-balancing, self-adjusting, self-cleansing.

So allow impertinent me to ask this rude question:

Why is Evolution (supposedly unguided by intelligence) able to strike this wondrous ecological balance when man (equipped with the most complex computer in the universe - the human brain) has only been good at F**KING THE PLACE UP?

Science Funnies

Here are a few funnies related to science from one of my favourite cartoonists, Bizarro.


























Imagine looking at a clone of yourself!


























That old argument for the Theory of Evolution - put a million monkeys at a million typewriters and eventually they produce Shakespeare.

By the way, we already have millions of brainy monkeys hammering away at millions of keyboards everyday all over the planet and all we're producing is info overload!



























How is this related to science? Well, atheists are always using science to back up their disbelief. :)

If you want more of Bizarro, go here: http://bizarrocomic.blogspot.com/