A Fullfilling Day in Beijing

Luckily, the world is made up of individuals with different motivations. A guy on Wall Street wants to get rich; a doctor wants to treat the sick in Africa; while an entrepreneur wants to start a company and watch it grow.

Because I caught polio when I was seven, and my father died in an iron lung in five days, I probably should've set my sights on making a lot of money. It certainly would've been the smart thing to do.

Instead I became a college professor and university vice president, and worked as a foster father for African-American guys. Because I'd been brought up living on Social Security, I could identify with many of their lives. When they succeeded, I felt good inside. It was clearly what I needed in my life.

After becoming a professor emeritus, I did a language exchange with a Chinese man in the UCLA MBA program. He was intelligent, open-minded and did his best to teach me Chinese. I valued his integrity and insights.

Once when flying back from Beijing I met a guy who needed a place to stay overnight. I took him home to my house in Los Angeles, and took him to a great place for breakfast. The last time I was in China, he flew from Beijing to Nanjing to speak to me in person for an hour and a half. Since then he has stayed with me in Los Angeles. As his son's godfather, I got to give his son an American name.

In the last couple of days, both men have called me from Beijing. I provided each one with the others number and they've already spoken and plan on working on a project. This gives me great joy. As a professor emeritus, I no longer had the opportunity to affect people's lives. My recent problems with mobility had left me isolated. But yesterday, when the two men talked, I felt fulfilled in a way I hadn't in the last couple of years.

I'm on a high because I still feel relevant. Seeds I planted a while ago came to fruition yesterday. My life is a good one.

Obama Owes Bernanke Big Time

Obama would not have a second term if it wasn't for the financial dexterity of Ben Bernanke.

While I voted for Obama three times, I believe he would never have been reelected without Bernanke's Fed policies.

When Obama entered office he turned over financial policy to Larry Summers, who never met a banker's ass he didn't want to kiss. One of the men responsible for killing Glass-Steagall, a New Deal law aimed at protecting bankers from themselves and America from chaos, Summers was the wrong man. He and Geithner made sure that bankers could walk away with all their ill-gotten gains during the financial crisis, while the American people bailed out the institutions they'd led down the garden path.

But lately, Obama has been dumping on Bernanke. He's indicated on more than one occasion he would not reappoint him. A list in the Wall Street Journal of potential appointees to run the Fed included the repugnant Summers, and Timothy Geithner. There are not two other Americans as supportive of the big banks then these two cronies. Either one of them would be a disaster as they kowtowed to Wall Street.

Maybe Obama resents the fact that Bernanke understands economics, while he clearly doesn't. He's good at running for office, just not good at running an office. When it comes to our financial system, he's as far from a progressive as one could imagine. We survived despite his lack of preparation for the presidency. It seems like he wants to take away the credit from the man who saved our financial system.

Koreans are Generous with Our Tears

My wife and I are hooked on Korean TV series. At the moment, we wait for the next episode of Shark to be shown in Korea, so Hulu can show it the next day. There is only one problem with Korean shows.
As my wife said the other day, "Koreans are too generous with our tears."

That's a fact you need to consider before joining the I love Korean TV fan club.  Korean directors have this incredible ability to dig into your emotions and tear your heart out.

Unlike American TV, Korean serials have planned finales before they begin the show. Unlike Alias,Lost and many other American dramas, you won't end up hating the creators of the series.

Korean writers and directors aren't afraid to kill off major characters in these stories. Some series end with the death of the hero.

If you can handle dramas with real emotions that can get inside you, then Korean television serials are the best in the world. Just don't say you weren't warned.

Novel and Movie Quotes For Today's Politics

In America, we've been lucky enough to have great novels and movies which say something about us. What is interesting is they still hold true in certain situations.

Here's a great Republican slogan from the pen of F Scott Fitzgerald: "so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

One day, a well-known ex-vice president will pass on. The line will only have to be changed slightly: "then last week, as it must to all men, death came to Charles Foster Kane." I wonder if the people conducting the autopsy will tell us where the 666 is hidden on his body."

We look to the Sun Also Rises for our response to those who hope the Republican Congress will begin to work with the presidency: "Isn't it pretty to think so."

And finally we look to one of the greatest Westerns of all time to hear what Pres. Obama says at three in the morning: "Shane, Shane!"

On Learning Chinese

The people who compliment me on my Chinese consists of two different groups: Chinese who are trying to be polite, and Americans who are surprised when anyone learns a foreign language.

Do not make the mistake of learning it when you're old. If you do, you'll find that Chinese is the one language easier to speak then to understand. All Chinese seem to think the Qing Army is on their trail and they have to speak as quickly as they can or be brought down by an arrow. Every minute of conversation gets worse because they assume you understand the sentences that came before. You can say "yaoshi ni hen man. ke neng wo  ke yi  zhi dao." (Which means, "if you can speak slowly, perhaps I can understand." They may speak slowly for one sentence but quickly forget and leave you in the linguistic dust.

To show how you have to pronounce each word in the perfect way, let's take the word "ma." Depending on the way you pronounce it, it can mean mother, horse, question, trouble, or marijuana. And you think German is hard.

Of course, except for some second-generation Chinese-Americans, only  enormously driven Meiguoren (Americans) speak the language. I've taught many Chinese nationals  American idioms, and I wonder why more people here aren't learning Chinese. "Wei li" is a way to say "the future" in Chinese. People are still learning French in high school. When France was looking for a place to celebrate the virtues of French, the only place they could find was in Vietnam. French was once the "lingua franca." Now the Germans talk to the French in English. The Italians talk to the Norwegians in English. Germans may try learning French, but almost always you will see a French student learning a Romance language, which is much easier than German or any other language.

Americans should try to learn Chinese (putang hua) but they should realize it's going to be much more difficult than high school French. Then we can get a benchmark on how our K-12 system is working. Having taught at a state university for 30 years, we'll find out it isn't.

Sleazy Bankers Strike Again

I just tried to pay my credit card balance in full. The only option that was available was to pay the minimum. I called customer service which said, "of course you can pay your balance in full." But with her help on the bank webpage, we still couldn't do it. It's clear the bank wanted me to owe them money. This is one of the largest banks in America, but it shows just how sleazy bankers are.

Reese Witherspoon and Other Egomaniacs

I will never go to a Reese Witherspoon movie again. However, considering that she plays roles where she's just so sweet, I don't worry about missing anything.

This is because I watched the dash cam video of her arrest. She says things like, "do you know who I am?" and "you'd better not arrest me."

I've placed her in my category of ego maniacal actors who believe their press releases. Just like Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin (who wasn't arrested, but screamed at his little daughter), these are people whose egos are immense and who think they have transcended "little people" like you and me.

In America, we have this fascination with celebrities, from Monaco Lewinsky to Paris Hilton. In fact, oral sex seems to be the way to become an important celebrity.

However, when an actress who is famous for being sweet acts like Leona Helmsley, you know you'll never be able to suspend disbelief about her again.