Silk Road International Blog

Last political stump, I promise.  I’ve avoided the incredibly huge white elephant in the room over this last week simply because I want to stay on line.  But I need to say something.  These two posts are concise but thought provoking; compare this about Ta!wan to this about T!bet.

I do most of my project management with clients via the internet and so I try to stay away from overtly political issues.  But there are “non-business” issues that affect business and affect the individuals involved in business.

By the way, if you think that the issues last weekend in T!bet, the elections this weekend in Ta!wan, the Olympics in August and the US presidential elections in November will not affect your business in China, you are mistaken.  These are important issues that affect who you can work with, the balance of trade and import/export policies, how much information you’ll have access to, the prices for materials and labor, the accessibility of markets and products, taxes, visas and most importantly the lives of real people.

Tags: Politics by david
No Comments »

I try not to be purely political on this blog, but who will be the next president of the US will affect my business over here.  Not to mention that these comments are stupid and offensive.   This single comment will live on in political infamy much longer than anyone will remember any other thing he’s said.  For a “brilliant orator” this was a misstep of historic proportions.

Now, I’ll admit, I am “a typical white person” whose “reactions that have been breed” because of “experiences” in my lifetime.   And according to him, I guess that who I was “breed” to be is disqualifying me from being anything but a racist–despite the fact that I’ve got a MA in Cultural Anthro, a Chinese wife and Chinese children and have lived in multiple countries for more than a decade.  My experiences include own my shock and dismay at my own grandma who made overtly racist comments to me (many years ago).  But I’m not throwing her under the bus to promote my own multicultural enlightenment–my imperfect “breeding” taught me at least that much.

This type of comment, ironically meant to resolve other concerns about racism, is not “hopeful” nor “unifying” (or smart or even politically helpful).  It’s certainly not kind to poor old granny and will almost assuredly alienate much of the other 60% of America that are “typcial white [people]” and that vote in the US in November.

Sorry for the interruption.  We now return to our regularly scheduled blogs on China.

Tags: Politics by david
3 Comments »