It is the Season to be jolly

Way overdue, I got your messages; thank you for kicking my butt in action.

I am still in North Sulawesi and very occupied with helping on all ends in the Resort. A quick trip brought me via Jakarta to Singapore, where I met up with Richard Q and joined a cocktail party for the island president. Aside from that, the Ritz Carlton Hotel and the Singapore Tourism Board forgot basic protocol in placing a National flag by the hotel entrance for a Head of State… the visit was fun. I enjoyed the craziness of Christmas shopping and, in an odd way, was glad to come back here to more quiet grounds, although the heap of work on hand here in Minahasa Lagoon is mind-boggling. I’m not going into details, but as with many resorts I’ve worked in the past, the only way to achieve positive results by having professional minds aboard is to support well-intended input and activate motion as I designed. All parties need to agree and focus on a common goal. The most success rests within reaching an obtainable target and brings joy to the hands of all workers involved. Otherwise, my time and knowledge are of little help, and the expected improvements cannot be delivered.

That brings me straight to the topic of politics at hand these days. Amongst bombings and failed World Summits, rape of children and women unpunished, wildfires and churning oceans, disappearing tapes of torture, and Laura Bush decorating a Christmas tree. There is the hope of restoring home values. Yes, I am for Hilary Clinton. It’s interesting that in the past twenty years of my political activism, I had to endure quite a bit of stabbing from friends and differently-oriented minds and souls. Can we please lay down the weapons and still accept that in a true democracy, we have different opinions? Focusing your choice on merely who is for Iraq or who is for free trade is too simple a perspective of the politics of the world’s future on hand. Foreign politics requests someone who can melt us back with communicative weapons and show a welcoming hand when negotiating with different perspectives and even strange leaders. This requires diplomacy, which we’ve lacked in eight horrid US years. We still are technically a superpower but have stamped a watery mark with bullish behavior on every attempt presented with good intentions. We need a White House that can reestablish the once inviting smiles when I showed my American passport in foreign lands; right now, I have to agree that I am a citizen of a Nation not very respected for its leaders or its demeanor. I expect to have a President who can immediately spin the wheel in action for research we have neglected in sectors of biology, AIDS research, and alternative energy sources and a Leader who can convince our Senate and Supreme Court to activate any protocol that shows our intend to participate with wise foresight, within respecting the cry to end pollution as we the US of A currently do. A Chief to tell Industrial moguls to stop lying about the truth in protection of their wealth and a Guide when setting standards bold and clear to protect my generation and the others on its way. I want foreign politics to be a negotiable necessity, not a war-infringed demand.

I feel America’s next leader needs to focus on balancing the spending of money into a direction that infuses education for all its citizens, keeps the selling of our trade values at balance with China and India, creates jobs foremost in the sectors of research and care and implement results that cure quickly and convenient for all citizens. We lack disciplinary actions on all levels of society and taxes instead of Insurance paid. We desperately need to listen to a new voice and not defend hieratic gospels. I want an American President who can speak a sentence without contortion on his face while uttering idiotic grammar and an example with a sense of humanity larger than greed for personal enrichment. No more religious excuses when murdering civilians, inflicting democracy afar when next-door dictators abuse their rights, no mass lies and deceitful distortions of evidence and distraction, twisting past announcements into new perceptions (deceptions), and enough of White House Speakers forthcoming with zero information. I insist on a somewhat honest human to win the election. I don’t care if such a President is young, old, black, female, religious, homophobic, or not even with a perfect past. But I want someone young enough to see the future, old enough to be wise, black sufficient to embrace white, female enough to lead like a man, religious at home, not in State dealings, homophobic but approve committed difference and imperfect to a point it relates with myself; I accept a bad future. I could tell you why I don’t like Hilary, but after wagering such thoughts, I found that compared with the other choices presented in this race, we are best off with another Clinton in the White House. Yes, that would bring us to over 25 years of two families carrying the American burden of the Presidency; it is stunning that there is nobody else among 140 million candidates to fill this job description. I don’t like a few things: Obama needing a talk show host pushing his agenda; if I wanted Opra in the White House, I would have voted for her or Mrs. Streisand instead of Bush!

When reading his recently published letter, Giuliani has shown very little change from reality. He still talks about Iraq and the good cause, has seemingly little to say about his view on more pressing issues like China and India, Europe, or NATO, and has no stand about respecting Bali’s recent failed gathering on convincing the US to commit a clear participation for positive Global energy guidelines finally. He harps an old familiar song about Iran and more war. Scary. Joe Biden, talking about narrow view -gun control – right there it ends – all nice, princess, but the world has more pressing matters. Dodd does not appear as a character I can relate with; he has excellent ideas; what did he talk about? It seems well-spoken, but there is a lack of substance.

Enough, I’m getting emotional.

So, this is the month of Christmas and New Year. A year it was. I escaped the turmoil of US living but had quite a turbulent experience in Singapore. I visited red, white & pure last week…One day before it secretly got sold… I had to put my head in there one last time. I stood at Thomas’s desk, now occupied by Bing, still dragging it on. It felt slightly strange being there, knowing the reality of the immediate future; somehow, time stood still for me, a reflecting minute; although I still find the concept to be brilliant, the reality of being in the space reflected a sad and failed attempt realizing a group dream. If only they would have accepted to learn to be guided. Inflexible people invite harsh reactions. Eu Yan Sang is on the right path; their innovative spirit surpasses this episode and will help the Group accomplish a new product line without any further collisions of grandiose ideas and delusive creators. Wise planting and care during growth results in a slow but rewarding harvest of healthy fruit; I, too, am tempted to forget these basics of bringing change within a company. I have now started recognizing the lessons I learned from this experience and can fully enjoy having participated; TCM is a fascinating topic, and the future will bring humankind back to natural remedies for a preventive and healthy approach to living. I’m convinced somehow, the idea of red, white & pure will find a guiding pioneering mind that can catapult this concept to its deserved success.

I have made new friends and split with a few, leaving an old, familiar past in its own way. Being away from Los Angeles has helped clear my mind of people who walk through the world with dissimilar goals to my own. I do respect their being diverse, but not when having to feel their grunt and whining about others who don’t come down to their level of misery. I equally like the people who have crossed my journey; I merely value the time spent with souls that share a more familiar and positive understanding of being much higher, and I do not search for quarrels and disorders. Life is short and shorter, and good spirits like laughter are soothing to accompany my yearning. The best moments are spent in life with friends who support a multi-leveled perspective and characters who can embrace healthy differences. Is it not odd how quickly we judge others by dubious standards that are created primarily on our heads (or inflicted by religious views)? We are confused by the idea that one human can bring about change. Initiate, yes – but it requires kindness and patience to share and prosper an excellent notion to victory. The most crucial message shared with a child is when YOU level to your knees and tell him eye to eye, calm and severe. Now, you must step back and let the message digest in the juvenile mind without feeling responsible if the result is unexpected. Why the heck should we all be equal? We can walk on common grounds and bring change into the world together as long there is understanding and we all care a bit about each other. I live by the guidelines I expect others to share, and I impersonate this decorum when inviting you to follow.

2008 shall guide us in this spirit to a less violent world and a prosperous and world-respecting future!