My daughter and my son

I have a son and a daughter. It is amazing that they are so different. Calvin is very good at reading and socializing. He is a quick learner, but often only skim the surface, My daughter, Christin, is kind of the opposite. She learned to read much later, but she observes things in small details.

Chistin has a gift of music. Both my children are learning piano. Here again, Christin did not learn as quickly as Calvin did. But now she is a much better piano player than her brother, even though Calvin started about one and half year earlier. She really enjoyes the music, and knows the tempo, forte very well. But Calvin just plays the who piece without paying any attention to the music. To him, it is just a chore.

Last Christmas, we went to Christmas shopping together. We gave a dollar-limit to the children as to how much they can buy. Within minutes, my son found what he needed and was very happy. But Christin was looking at this and that, and simply couldn't decide. In the end, she did not find anything she liked. I guess she knows better what she likes. For my son, everything is good.

Calvin is great at sports. He has an amazing ability to learn things very quickly. He is now very into martial art. But he has never been very happy about playing piano. But we felt it is a good discipline for him.

Christin likes typical girl things: like hello-kitty, Barbie and princess stuff. She is quiet and very sweet. Everywhere she goes, people like her. She is the one of her teacher's most favorite students at her Montessori school. She is also one of the most liked students in her church Sunday school.

Death of Zhao Ziyang

Zhao Zi Yang died on Jan 17th, 2005. These days, I have been thinking the legacy Zhao has left for the nation. He is definitely a victim of that era.

I still remember 1989 vividly. Initially the students were not allying themsleves with any particular top leader. In fact, in Bejing University's posters, Zhao was also named one of the corrupt party leaders, along with Yang Shangqun and others. I still have a copy of the so-called "genealogy of the revolutionary families", describing how younger generations of the "revolutionary families" benefited from their "revolutionary parents". Zhao and Li Peng were on top of that list.

It was only one day before the martial law declaration (May 19th), did we realize that Zhao was a student sympathizer. Zhao went to Tiananmen to ask students to leave the square. There was this famous quote of his in his distinctive Henan accent:"we are old, not useful any more. But you are still young. Please cherish yourselves. Go home now, please."

The fall of Zhao was inevitable. Even before 1989, there were signs that Zhao has lost the power struggle with the conservatives. In 1988 (?), we was named the General Secretary of the CCP, a more ceremonial position than Premier of the goverment, the position that was handed over to Li Peng. I still recall his unusually direct comment showing his disappointed with the new assignment: "I am a practitioner in nature, actually more suited forthe Premier position." This kind of comment was unheard of before in Chinese politics. That showed Zhao's frustration over his loss of power.

The mid-1980s were a tumultuous period for China. Inflation was running very high. Corruption started to show up. Economic reform showed initial success in the agricultural sector, but ran into significant obstacles in the industrial sectors. Populous demonstrations, student protests were very frequent. Conservatives started to get really nervous about the reform, and reformers were losing the grip of power.

In 1987, Zhao started a gradual process of pricing relaxation on certain comodities. All of a sudden, a furor of mechandise stocking ran through the whole nation, because people were expecting the prices would rise rapidly. The government had an emergence meeting in the summer in Beidaihe. After the meeting, Zhao lost power over economic issues. And his policy on price deregulation was reversed, and Li Peng succeeded him as the Premier.

I believe Zhao wanted to use the student movement in 1989 to regain his power. But that effort failed spectacularly. Remember at that time, Deng was still the mastermind behind the scene.

Now almost 15 years later, many Chinese believe that China was right to take a more gradual course of reform. June 4th was a tragedy and the government made a huge mistake. But things were more complicated than on the surface. Student protest lasted from April 15th to June 4th. The government did show some degree of tolerance, to be fair. However, there should be no excuse for killing.

I am the first-hand witness and participant of the 1989 student movement. I was a graduate student, and more mature than the college freshmen and sophomores that were on the street. I felt it wasn't right from early on. We could have concluded the whole movement without either side losing face, after the April 27th procession/March. I thought the whole thing was over after that day. In fact, many students started to go back into the classroom because the mid-term exams were coming. But out of nowhere someone started a fasting campaign (I recall it was on May 12th or 13th, a Saturday night). From then on things just got out of control, culminated with the June 4th massacre.

May God rest Zhao's soul.

CA train wreck and Iraqi election

An absurd piece of news yesterday. Some nuts in CA tried to kill himself by parking his SUV on on commuter train track. As the train approached, he chickened out and jump for his miserable life. But the train hit the car, derailed, hit a parked freight train, and was hit by another passing-by commuter train. Ten people died and scores of others were injured.

This person is a domestic terrorist. If he wants to kill himslef, there are many other ways: bite the bullet literally, jump down from the bridge, or whatever other means. This guy has a miserable life that he does not want to live, and worse of it is that he wants to make others' lives miserable as his. What a crooked mind!

Now he does not have to kill himself. The law will.

Another topic. Iraqi people will hold an election for the general assembly this Sunday. Quite ironic for the US government. No matter what outcome the election result may be, it is not going to be good for the US. Suppose the conservative Shiite coalition won the most of seats, that is not what the US wants to see. Suppose the US-supported interim government won majority, what the radical shiites will say? The election is unfair, and rigged! Then these radicals might join the Suni insurgents. That is even worse for the US occupation force.

Will the US force continue to stay in Iraq after the "elected" Iraqi government takes over? That again is a thorny issue. If the US-supported interim government wins the election, obviously it will "ASK" the US force to stay "as long as the security and stability requires". But what if the Religious Shias takes over, and asks the US force to leave?

What an entangled web we weaved ourselves into!

Are we rich

My son asked me this question the other day: "dad, are we rich or poor?" I was surprised by the question: "why do you ask this question, my son?" My son is only a second grader. Growing up in China, I remember when I was his age, I did not have any concept of wealth. We were all equal, equally poor in materials, but equally abundant in spirit.
"Well. My friend (name omitted) told me his dad is a millionaire. A million is very rich right? How much do you have, dad?" I have tried very hard to free my children from thinking in materials terms at this young ages. But I think I failed. The school and the environment we live in have more influence on a child than anyone can have. He has already started to notice what kind of cars people are driving (thank you TV commericials. That is why we rarely watch any TVs. Kids only watch PBS around my house!), what kind houses people live in.
How much do I have? That makes me ponder. What makes a person rich? Is it really the numbers of zeros behind a digit that a person has in his/her bank account? Is rich only defined in monetary terms?
"I may not have a million dollars, son. But we are very rich! Remember, son, we are very rich, becuase God has made us rich." I said to my son.
"He has?" My son was in doubt.
"The Lord is my shepherd. I shall never be in want. Son, you have all the things that you need, your clothes, your food, a nice house, love from your parents, and much much more. Aren't we very rich?"
"I guess you are right, dad." My son is semi-convinced.
How can I convince you my son. I even need to convince myself about what I just said, so that I would not be a person driven by money, but driven by the desire to glorify God in whatever I do.
I hope my son will understand this. Because I know in my personal experience that happiness can not be obtained from material possessions. Happiness is a state of mind, a sense of satisfaction, gratitute, and hope for better future.
We are rich, very rich in deed.

I am novice here.

First time user. But I think this is going to be very interesting. I always wanted to find a medium to jot down my random thoughts. Tired of using paper journals.

I will use this forum to talk about religion, politics, economy, and investing.

First of all, I am an unbashful social liberal and moral conservative (how can these two mix, some might wonder?). I don't find either of the two political parties appealing to my political philosophy. Democrats have no principle, and republicans have no hearts.

I will save more for tomorrow.