Jan 28 (Sn) How many countries need to add A Minister of Loneliness?

Sun Lasting (Xena Crystal LC Huang)  

What's on your mind? Took a short break with my feline Majesties after 3 hours' reading, sending feedback to sociology and diversity Week One assignments. Just made a poster to please all my Majesties. Might please you as well.

Jan 14 (Sn) 2018 Do you like to put the "Shxxhxle" in a gentle perspective? Yes, I do...

Do you like to put the "Shxxhxle" (Axxxxle) in a gentle perspective? Yes, I do...

When the us leader condescended on some countries with a vulgar word of “Sxxxhxle”, the gentle and kind scenarios toward this nothing-"surprising"-event may look like these:

Perspective#1
This person intentionally reinforces his base and the non-base with his “non-political innocence”, or “straight-forwardness” which is the non-existent attribute or character of the most career politicians, so both his supporters and dissidents may not fuss up a non-professional business-politician’s cute conducts. Thus, the American people will be saturated with these types of self-claimed genius-acts and loosen up the alert of the continuous narcissistic behaviors. Finally, everyone might as well just drop the potential Impeachments.

You don’t prosecute a mentally disturbed person, even so genuinely faked, do you?

Meanwhile, could you image if the other presidential candidate had won the game, how boring, and disappointed it might have been to the mushrooming media mouth-pieces, including the high time of all sorts of comedians, the booming political junkies and analysts, as well as the hype of Wall Street speculators ?

Furthermore, how the global politic-economic games might have lost its "dynamics", if not the highly demanded the "lime-lights" on the playfulness of the running bull in the china shop?

Perspective#2
It manifests the limitation of the individual life experiences, such as, the ability to put oneself into others’ shoes. As a short story goes that a 2nd grader tells his/her teacher who discusses the concept of life styles between the rich and poor families. The kid raised his/her hand to express ideas, “I think my family is very poor, because our housemaids always wear the same old clothing, my tutors bring in lunch bags without fruits, and my father’s chauffeur’s shoes are so worn out…  I think my father does not have money to hire people who are not so poor. My poor daddy.... My family is really poor! ” Social class experiences are unique to each stratum.

Insiders have hard time to comprehend the outsiders’ situations. The empathetic simulations might only capture a glimpse of different life styles and conditions. Between Us and Them, there exists an invisible chasm unable to be crossed over. A good example is this: there was one of the brat emperors in the history when he heard the officials reporting the death tolls of people in a severe famine, “Your Majesty, the mass has no rice, wheat, nor corns to eat. They are starving to death…We need to work out a disastrous famine relief Act as soon as possible...” The emperor, then, absent-mindlessly raised his voice, “Why are you guys so stupid?! If they don’t have rice or wheat, why not just eat meat to stop the hunger?” (朱門酒肉臭, 野有餓死骨). There is a Taiwanese saying, “He who eats rice readily made every day, does not know how much costs a kilo of rice” (吃米不知米價). People taking many things for granted is a part of the habituated outcomes of conditioning.

Perspective#3
Ask these questions and answer honestly - who and which generation truly work hard, if not work smart for the America? Who are those truly representing the US spirit - the land of the Free and the home of the Brave? Who are those living off the social programs, particularly, with their very own decadent downward social mobility, seeking rewards with the least efforts, exploiting those who have hard time to climb up the social ladder?

How does it look like in the US, if you cut off the immigrants of the high-end foreign "voluntary self-enslaving, intelligent labor forces” and the low-end INVOLUNTARY cheap-slaving laborers? What does the middle-end of mediocrity seek, if not comfort, easy life, without getting finger dirty, then what else? A proverb says that the lazy dogs in the manger, complain and force the hard-working, hard-hatted cats away from competing the food sources.
  
If you recall the history of immigrants, you might encounter the fact that the ONLY people in the US, who don’t take things for granted,  are,  the First-Generation Immigrants, and in the past, they were probably, your grand-grand-grand… mothers and fathers. They had/have to fight and work hard for everything with vitality infusing into the aging, deteriorating society with new blood. From the shamed native language and learning the new one, struggling and competing for jobs (not with the black, yellow or brown yet), protecting belongings, adapting the new living environment which, sometimes, could relate to life and death. In short, they needed to adapt, adjust, and relearn the new whole cultural package (even within the Caucasian Ethnic groups). But after the successful adaptation, the upgraded status separates them from the new comers. The story repeats itself from the day one of the Mayflower till today in the countries of immigrants, including, such as, Australia, Canada etc. white immigrated nations (WIN), ( those of which are not WIN in the Southeast Asia have different stories). Then, much later, the story was added with different colored classes into this competitive arena.

Perspective#4
Is he qualified to be a typical Social Darwinist baby? The phrase “survival of the fittest” is best understood as "Survival of the form that will leave the most copies of itself in successive generations". Though the notion was originated from the Darwinism, in fact, Herbert Spencer was the first person who coined these words. 

Spencer after reading
On the Origin of Species of Charles Darwin, published in 1859, he used this phrase - “Survival of the fittest” in his Principles of Biology, published in 1864. He drew parallels between his own economic theories and Darwin's biological ones: "This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called 'natural selection', or the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life".  This juxtaposed phenomenon of social and natural sciences might have presumed that human species has the similar evolutionary process to that of the non-human living organisms – those who are “stronger” are on the top of the human totem.

Nevertheless,  the questions are, how people are or become stronger, and stronger in what sense? Yes, we do see people like Shaquille O'neal growing up to the 7’1”, 325 lbs., or Michael Jordan being able to jump higher than the basketball hoop, or actress Audrey Hepburn, born with the natural beauty. These are biologically based or naturally endowed strength by human values, as in the animal kingdom, lions with stronger muscles, bigger claws and tougher fangs, will dominate the pride. These values are biologically pre-determined attributes (but determined by Whom, and what?) Nevertheless, if there were not the sport institutions, or the entertaining industries existing and demanding these biologically attractive attributes, then the supreme height, speed, and beauty might have not been discovered, cultivated, trained, or supplied.  For example, there was a short story about a traveler who visited Africa. During the trip, he accidentally found a boy who played soccer with kids in a poor neighborhood. The excellent skills of this boy shocked the traveler who, in the long run helped recruit him to the Europe. Then, the story ended with the success, money, and fame bestowed to this used-to-be a mini poor boy. The similar stories can also be found from many baseball stars from Lain America in the US. Major Leagues. Individual talents might count for nothing, or being buried, if not cultivated in the interconnected social institutions or systems.

As a cliché goes that it takes many villages for a long period of time to let a genius flourishing. In sociological terms, it refers to the accumulated, both positive and/or negative national/cultural capitals, and the inter-generational social mobility that nurture or hinder the individual's naturally endowed potentials, or given defects (i.e., the Ascribed Statuses, as mentioned in the previous article of life chance vs. life opportunity). 

A familiar setting of the writer’s: in the classroom, she observes that most students tend to agree to the notion of meritocracy. Most of them believe in those who are on the top of social ladder are smarter, work harder, and deserve the “merits” they earn/deserve “individually”. Even more interesting phenomenon is that students also reflect they earned every bit of their own “success” (most of them come from the working-class background). The playing field is leveled or not, which is not important, for oftentimes, it is not visible or out of thoughts, but how much efforts one puts into that counts. In fact, this mixed blessing individualism is quite inspiring that people need to believe in self-reliance to ask what oneself can do for the country, not the other way around confidently. Furthermore, most people believe opportunities (what kind of opportunity is not questioned) are available to everyone, “equally”, particularly, in the US. A good scenario in the classroom looks like this when the topic is focused on the social mobility:

John, “There are tons of job opportunities available. Some people are just lazy who don’t want to pull themselves up and prefer to stay home living off well-fare programs, or just beg for money, instead of sending their job application forms to the hiring companies. Today, on the way driving to the school, I saw both McDonald and Walmart are hiring people…” Jenny continues,” Ya, one of my neighbors, getting government checks monthly, purchases everything they want, and I, have to work my butt off…”. Finally, Jamie says, “O. K., this is my family thing. My sister got pregnant at the age of 17 and dropped out of school. Now she gets everything, from food stamps, to housing subsidy… Then I have to earn every penny to pay my tuition (in fact, 56% of it is from the local tax payers) and the rest of bills…”  As an instructor, in this situation, you cannot deny that there are the diligent, lazy and people between these two spectra with different dispositions from various social strata.  People with bootstraps to pull themselves up might not understand some, who might not have boots, nor bootstraps. You also think of Nickle and Dimed regarding how, some people are deeply trapped in the culture of poverty INVOLUNTARILY, unhealthy living conditions, lack of basic job-seeking capacities (e.g., the ability to pay the rent, get a car, and the rest of cost associated with it: the car insurance policy, gas, parking spot/fees, maintenance, and the rest of utility bills), just to name a few. Then, the lucky ones, believe in the just-world-phenomenon (you-get-what-you-deserve),  regardless the deeply intertwined social forces imposing on every individual with no exception, which, unfortunately, are invisible to the most people.Yes, god helps those who help themselves - the statement can get you and politicians no wrong.

Most of us are standing on the shoulders of giants, dwarfs, and the heights between them to begin our life journeys. On the giant’s, may give you broader horizon and inspire you with higher goals, but, some might not fully take such an advantage or use/be aware of the privilege to advance themselves or humanity. Whereas, on the dwarf’s, most exposed to the limited eyesight, and the thriving spirit may be left less inspired or under-developed, while some learn to stay put with unmotivated mindset via the scarce opportunities.  The downward social mobility, in this case, can spiral down, unless unusual conditions break up the cyclical conditions. Those in the between, there are various possible mobility for better and worse. General speaking, with necessary and sufficient scaffolds, the better well-beings can be achieved.

Within a society, or between societies, there are different shoulders of giants, dwarfs, and the heights between them to stand on. These giants and dwarfs are part of the global stratification system derived from the historical conditions: culture diffusion, invention, discovery, geo-political formation, imperialism, neo/colonialism, and the rest man-made ideologies shackle human mind via various power structures.

Are there potential solutions available to ameliorate the aforementioned conditions? Which of the following institution do you still believe in making the potential transformation possible - government/politics, military, economy, religion, family, health care, media, or education?

Jan 11 (Th), 2018 Song for today in English and Mandarin

Summer kisses, Winter tears (Mandarin 多少柔情多少淚) 
Songwriters and Lyricists: F.Wise, B.Wiseman, J.Lloyd，
Tim Heintz,  and 雨牛
Singer: Dr. By Xena LCH #170

Summer kisses, Winter tears
That was what she gave to me
Never thought that I'd travel all alone
The trail of memories
Happy hours, lonely years
But I guess I can't complain
For I still recall the Summer sun
Through all the Winter rain
The fire of love, the fire of love
Can burn from afar
And nothing can light the dark of the night
Like a falling star
Summer kisses, Winter tears
Like the stars they fade away
Leaving me to spend my lonely nights
With dreams of yesterday
The fire of love, the fire of love
Can burn from afar
And nothing can light the dark of the night
Like a falling star
Summer kisses, Winter tears
Like the stars they fade away
Leaving me to spend my lonely nights
With dreams of yesterday
Summer kisses, Winter tears

Marndarin
Lyricist:

多少柔情多少淚　
往事如煙去不回 想起過去多少歡樂　
如今已隨流水 多少柔情多少淚　
良辰美景去不回 剩下一片迷離夢境　
夢醒時更悲哀 多情的夢　愛情的夢　
如今已消逝 愛情的花　愛情的花　
如今已枯萎 多少柔情多少淚　
淚已流乾心已碎 長夜漫漫往事如煙　
如今獨自沉醉 多少柔情多少淚

Jan 11 (Th), 2018 Song for tonight : Cape Erimo with Mandarin

作曲 Composer：吉田拓郎 Yoshida Takuro
作詞 Lyricist ：岡本おさみ Okamoto Osami
Singer: Dr. Xena LCH #169a

北の 街では もう 悲しみを暖炉で
燃やし はじめてる らしい
理由の わからない ことで
悩んでいるうち
老いぼれ て しまう から
黙り とおした 歳月(としつき)を
ひろい集めて 暖めあおう
襟裳の春は 何もない春です

君は 二杯目 だよね コーヒー カップに
角砂糖を ひとつ だったね
捨てて 来てし まった
わず らわしさ だけを
くるくる かき まわし て
通り すぎた 夏の 匂い
想い 出し て 懐 か しいね
襟 裳の 春は 何も ない春です

日々の暮らしは いやでも やって くるけど
静かに 笑ってしまおう
いじける こと だけが
生きる ことだと
飼い馴ら しすぎ たので
身構えながら 話す なんて
ああ おくびょう なん だよね
襟裳の春は 何もない春です
寒い友だちが 訪ねて きたよ
遠慮は いらない から
暖まって ゆき なよ
----------------------------------------

 Mandarin

海邊 掀起浪濤
激盪了 我的心
記得 就在 海邊 我倆 留下 愛的吻
那樣美 又溫馨
如今 只有我 一個人
 默默地 在追尋 追尋往事 那段 歡樂時光
那段 美麗的夢
愛人愛人 我的愛 我等你 回來 訴說情懷

海邊 潮來潮往
真叫我 心迷茫
記得 就在海邊 我倆留下 誓言
那地久 又天長
如今只有我一個人 默默地
在徘徊 徘徊海邊 想起往事片片
你不在身邊 愛人愛人我的愛
我等你 回來 訴說情懷

Jan 8 (T) 2018 How does the mutually complimenting and complemented world look like?

Jan 8 (T) 2018 How to capture the ideological rapist?

Jan 6 (Sa) 2018 Songs on Sun-sun's Memorial Day

In memory of Sun-sun, one of the most thoughtful, intelligent and elegant feline majesties in my life. Sun-sun was adopted from a Farm.
She was diagnosed with congenital heart disease and
passed away in Jan 6, 2002.
Sung by Crystal Li-chin Huang #34
 --------------
Lyrics:
Midnight, not a sound from the pavement
Has the moon lost her memory?
She is smiling alone
In the lamplight, the withered leaves collect at my feet
And the wind begins to moan

Memory, All alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again

Every streetlamp seems to beat
A fatalistic warning
Someone mutters and the street lamp gutters
And soon
It will be morning

Daylight
I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life
And I mustn't give in
When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin

Burnt out ends of smokey days
The stale cold smell of morning
The street lamp dies, another night is over
Another day is dawning


-------------------------------------

Song for today to cheer up the Winter Blue! I recorded it again for my sister (who is "refurbishing" her 3rd language) with lyrics, pronunciation, and translation. It might interest you.

Though the song has a light-hearted melody, in fact, it is quite melancholic.

The song, 上を向いて歩こう ( I Look Up As I Walk) was published in 1961 in Japan and then popular in the US with a funny title 壽喜燒 Sukiyaki which is a type of popular food in Japan.

Enjoy it!




Sukiyaki (壽喜燒 上を向いて歩こう  I Look Up As I Walk)

Composer: 中村 八大Nakamura Hachidai

Lyricist: 六輔 永 Rokusuke Ei

Singer: Xena LCH #82b

上を向いて歩こう

涙が零れないように 

思い出す春の日

一人ぼっちの夜

上を向いて歩こう

滲んだ星をか数えて

思い出す夏の日

一人ぼっちの夜

幸せは雲の上に

幸せは空の上に

上を向いて歩こう

涙が零れないように

泣きながら歩く

一人ぼっちの夜

Whistle

思い出す秋の日

一人ぼっちの夜

悲しみは星の影に

悲しみは月の影に

上を向いて歩こう

涙が零れないように

泣きながら歩く

一人ぼっちの夜

一人ぼっちの夜

-------------------------------

Hiragana (平假名)
うえ　を　むいて　あるこう

なみだ　が　こぼれないように

おもいだす　はるの　ひ

ひとりぼっち　の　よる

うえ　を　むいて　あるこう

にじんだ　ほし　を　かぞえて

おもいだす　なつの　ひ

ひとりぼっち　の　よる

しあわせ　は　くも　の　うえに

しあわせ　は　そら　の　うえに

うえ　を　むいて　あるこう

なみだ　が　こぼれないように

なきながら　あるく

ひとりぼっち　の　よる

おもいだす　あきの　ひ

ひとりぼっち　の　よる

かなしみ　は　ほしの　かげに

かなしみ　は　つきの　かげに

うえ　を　むいて　あるこう

なみだ　が　こぼれないように

なきながら　あるく

ひとりぼっち　の　よる

ひとりぼっち　の　よる

----------------

Romaji

Ue o muite arukō

namida ga koborenai youni

omoidasu haruno hi

hitoribocchi no yoru

ue o muite arukō

nijinda hoshi o kazoete

omoidasu natsuno hi

hitoribocchi no yoru

shiawase wa kumo no ueni

shiawase wa sora no ueni

ue o muite arukō

namida ga koborenai youni

nakinagara aruku

hitoribocchi no yoru

omoidasu akino hi

hitoribocchi no yoru

kanashimi wa hoshino kageni

kanashimi wa tsukino kageni

ue o muite arukō

namida ga koborenai youni

nakinagara aruku

hitoribocchi no yoru

hitoribocchi no yoru

--------------------------

English

I look up while I walk

So the tears won't fall

Remembering those spring days

But tonight I'm all alone

I look up while I walk

Counting the stars with teary eyes

Remembering those summer days

But tonight I'm all alone

Happiness lies beyond the clouds

Happiness lies above the sky

I look up while I walk

So the tears won't fall

I cry while I walk

For I am alone tonight

Remembering those autumn days

But tonight I'm all alone

Sadness hides in the shadow of the stars

Sadness hides in the shadow of the moon

I look up while I walk

So the tears won't fall

My heart is filled with sorrow

For tonight I am alone

For tonight I am alone

Sun Lasting Taiwan, Japan, China - what a complicated triangular geo-political affair!!! I also have a pastel drawing which was done when I was a student with a reduction of such a relationship. Let me look for it for a post. Stay tuned  !

Sun Lasting I found it !!! - Title: Hidden Tiger, Crouching Dragon