A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

2010-05-24T00:52:00.000-07:00

Dreams and paths

"Two roads diverged in a wood, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." Decisions, decisions, a decision to take the better road is mine. Every now and then i encounter with conflicting thoughts about choices i made in the past, whether they led me to the right path or not; choices i will make in the future, whether i will regret them or not. But however i choose, i can still stand proud because the decisions will be mine and i would have traveled the path on my own, charting and planning each of my own steps.
Now that i am done with the road of college, what's next? I've been getting advice from friends and family about coming back home, settling down and perhaps becoming part of Mongolia's glorious regeneration.However,i find beauty in waking up in the morning without having any idea of where in the world i'll be in the next couple of months, having no clue of what kind of wonderful people i will meet, feeling the excitement of having unpredictable life.There is so much beauty in running wild freely...

In other words, i am too fly to settle down and too afraid to be caught in mundane routine of everyday life.I wish i had the guts to drop out of college and travel through South America and care for the poor like Che did. Like he said:" Let the world change you and you can change the world." Maybe that is why i refuse to settle down for now. I want the world to change me with all the obstacles and challenges of life and open my eyes for greater things. However,as much as i want to travel freely, give willingly and not be bound by this greedy material world there are always stings to pull back. First, I don't have the disposable wealth to chase all my dreams, and i have responsibilities to give back as a daughter and as a sister. I have to earn for living! ...I guess that's how dreams are killed by life.
But i still dream that my hopes will not be torn apart and my dreams will not be turned to shame.

The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

2010-04-12T23:45:00.000-07:00

One morning in San Francisco.

Woke up around 10Am and went out to eat by myself. Had a nice brunch at nearby Crepe Place and had some Italian steamer while reading. I like that place because it's really cozy and always plays Sinatra in the background. While i was walking back i discovered a very old, tiny bookstore on Sutter street. Even though the books were not of my interest, the place was pretty magical- filled with rich smell of old books with yellow pages, dusty furnitures and ladders that go up to the shelves. After browsing for a while, i found out that it was the same bookstore that Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo was filmed, only the name has been changed from Argonaut Bookstore to Argossy. Unfortunately, i didn't have my camera with me, will definitely stop by there later to take a picture.
San Francisco has so much to offer, the city itself has so much culture to it-the food, the people, and the music! Ah, I left my heart in San Francisco.

2010-01-16T23:46:00.000-08:00

Where is home?

The farther you go from home, the more you become patriotic and more you become aware of who you are and where you come from. I remember in 5th grade our private school principal Ms. Oyuntsetseg, D. told our classmates about the meaning of motherland, and how she wished to educate us to become individuals who not only possess excellent knowledge and foreign language skills but intellectuals who have deep sense of patriotism and love for the motherland. She was one of the true intellectuals in Mongolia whom I was bit intimidated, greatly astounded and respected dearly since I was a little girl. After one fight that occurred among our classmates, she reminded us all that in this world we are all divided into different circles that creates our identity and builds this "we as one" sense.

First, as one classmates we are one circle that should be supportive of each other, outside of that circle it is our hometown the place we grew up that distinguishes us, beyond that circle it is our country that identifies us as Mongolians that we should always be loyal to and after all, the biggest circle is the mother earth that we all as human beings belong to. She also held a PhD in Music Theory and it never goes out of my mind how she said that there will be a time that we as kids will appreciate Mongolian Folk Music once we move abroad and experience the diasporic existence of being away from our roots.

5 years being away from home, I still am very proud of my nationality and I still embrace my ethnicity wherever I go. However, I come to realize that the ‘American education’I acquired and the diverse group of friends I made acquaintance with throughout the past years have eventually made me lose my childish jingoism and somehow diluted my sense of deep “nationalism”. I find myself the more I travel, the more I get immersed into different cultures. I could identify myself with all the previous cities I lived and as time went by I found myself developing a new sense of appreciation to different cultures and I even began to develop sense of patriotism to that new culture that I was living in. I see the US as my adopted homeland, and I see Hawai`i as my second home. There is no country like US that welcomes people from all different corners of the world with both arms open, and there is no place like Hawai`i that feels more homey. I was never treated as a foreigner in Hawai`i, and the fact that we all share the Aloha Spirit in Hawai`i no matter where we came from identifies us as the people from a “happier state.” Polynesian people’s warm hospitality, their great respect for their kupunas (elders) and their sense of appreciation to their nature and to their beach is astonishing.

It makes me wonder what exactly motherland is and how much we owe to that? If we see motherland in the modern context of sovereign states, all nations were born in 1648 with the signing of Treaty of Westphalia. After all, the idea of nationalism indeed is a very superficial concept that is created to make people be loyal to the authority. Professor Howard Zinn also quoted that: “ Nationalism is a set of beliefs taught to each generation in which the Motherland or the Fatherland is an object of veneration and becomes a burning cause for which one becomes willing to kill the children of other Motherland and Fatherland.” I agree with him to some extent that the idea of nationalism is used as a tool to spur hatred, racism and chauvinism to some. During the Cultural Revolution of Mongolia, my grandparents were falsely convicted of treason and have been imprisoned for many years and shot. Despite the ridicule of being a political rebels’ kids my grandparents remains loyal to the party until today. Some people are taught to love the motherland more than their brothers and sisters and even their parents. And in some cases the motherland gives nothing to those people who stayed loyal; nothing but hunger, shame, calumny, denunciation and humility! So, by being patriotic is it the government that we are showing loyalty to, is it love for the one's soil that we grew up on, or is it the mighty history of Mongolia that keeps us as one?

Aristotle said: “I am not an Athenian or Greek, but a citizen of the world.” Maybe I too, do not want to identify myself to any geographical references and I too prefer to be a wandering global citizen. I am sure things would be so much less complicated if there were no borders to divide us. Perhaps that is what John Lennon had in mind when he was “Imagining” about no countries to die or kill for, and when Thomas Paine declared the world as his country, all mankind as his brethren and doing good as his religion. Being the free spirit me, I am drawn by my endless desire to discover new places, meet with new people and to get to know this world. Maybe when I become old and feeble, Mongolia will be the only country that will be my shelter and my fellow Mongolians will be the only people that would still take me with both arms open. In the meantime, I hope I will be able to find the true meaning of motherland and see if it is really “sweet and loving to die for the motherland” as Wilfred Owen wrote.

Now, after going over what i wrote above it reads like a ludicrous jumbled thoughts wandering everywhere from my 5th grade memoir to my grandparents' story during socialism. However, i have to admit that all these thoughts of nationalism and motherland spurred from my simple nostalgia of missing my life in Hawai`i. The fact that i miss Hawai`i instead of the town that i grew up as a child really made me ponder upon where is my place called home? where is my circle? and where did my sense of nationalism fall into? I still do not know, or maybe i am just hiding it from myself...

I miss Hawai`i dearly and i wish someday i will be walking along the Hukilau beach and see the sunrise over Laie again...

2009-08-31T20:16:00.000-07:00

"There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep sea and the music in its roar;
I love not man the less, but Nature more." –Lord Byron

Ahh, society!!! Wish i had the strength to completely escape from this sick society full of hypocrites,lunatics, and liars...and be just content with my own solitude.But this world is too small to escape from anything.No matter how far i go, everything seems just a click away...
I wonder, exactly how much of our happiness comes from human relationships??

2009-08-26T19:54:00.000-07:00

Glory, Glory Mongolia!!!

Mongol maani uneheer hugjij bainaa… Gaihaltai!!! Zun ochihod l Adidas, Esprit, Swarovski delguuruud neegdchihsen, Hilton, Shangri La buudluud udahgui neeltee hiine getsgeegeed l. Deerees ni Ulaanbaatariin gudamjaar yu l baina duuren tom tom mashinuud suljildetsgeegeed, yamar saindaa mani met shig yavgan humuust bagtaj shingej alhah gazar oldohgui baihavdee. Ziak tegeed shuniin Ulaanbaatar bol buur ch sak!!! Yun ter delhii niitiin ediin zasgiin hyamral, Ulaanbaatart bol oroi bolgon pub, club-uud pig duuren, bur achaallaa diilehgui baigaa yanztai. Baahan l Dolce, Prada umsuj Chanel barisan ohiduud. Goy, goy!!

Gevch uneheer Mongol maani hugjuud baina uu gehleer bas uguimaa. Quiza-giin “Oluulaa” duun deer gardag shig uneheer l zarim humuusiin amidral tsaanaa l neg zoviurtai, amidral ni ulam buur doroitson tednii huvid Ulaanbaatar hot yag l heveeree saaraltan tsenhertseer… Bayachuud ni ulam bayajij, yaduus ni ulam l yaduuraad baigaa ene niigmiig yaltai ch bilee dee. Sayhan online deer “From Chinggis to Louis- Is the new Louis Vuitton Shop in Ulaanbaatar the start of a new area in Mongolian Globalization?” gesen niitlel unshsan yum baina. Yahav gadniihnaas yugaaraa duthav, tedend bas Chinggis haaniihaa hushuunuus uur neg haruulah yumtai bolson bolj l baina.Gehdee Mongoliin hugjliig heden delguur, zochid buudlaar hemjine gevel denduu uruusgul oilgolt bolno. Unendee neg hund noogdoh dotoodiin niit buteegdehuun ni ( GDP per capita) 3200 dollar chuutai aitai hurdeg Mongol shig oron Mercedes mashin, Louis Vuitton tsunheer hahaj tsatsaad baigaa ni hugjij bui ediin zasgiin shinj yaltai ch bish, harin ch bur yalzarsan ediin zasgiin todoos tod ilerhiilel. Ene ni gehdee gants Mongold ch bolood baigaa uzegdel bish yumaa, huuchin sots ornuud bolon gadniihnii colony baisan ornuud ihevchlen economic stratification gej nerleed baigaa umchiin het haritsangui huvaarilaltand orson baidag. Afrikiin ornuud l gehed bugd ugeegui hooson, ulsgulun tarchlangaar duuren gesen oilgoltiig “media” delhiid taraadag. Gevch ted baylaggui yaduudaa ulsuugui odoo Mongold bolood baigaa umchiin shudarga bus huvaarilalt l uusseniihee ur dund hun amiinhaa 80-aas deesh huviiig ni ulsguchihuud, uldsen 10 hedhen oligarchuud ni hamag bayalgiig ni huvaaj iden importiin Louis Vuitton, Mercedes bolgochihood baigaa yum chen yaj ch uls ni hugjihuvdee.

Mongold l gehed taamag toogoor ulsiin niit bayalgiig ezemshdeg 200-gaad l urh baidag gedeg yum bainalee. Hedhen tom corporate business-uud uneheer gazar avchihsan, business erhlegchid uls turchidteigee tolgoi holbon baij l ajil buteedeg, uneheer “crony capitalism”-iin todoos tod jishee ni Mongol boljee. Haa saigui ediin zasag taaruu baihad, Mongoliin oligarchuudiin nair naadam dundrahgui ulam halgij tsalgisaar l … Uunii tailbariig harin Ediin Zasgiin Uhaanaar Nobel avsan, Columbiin Ih Surguuliin professor Joseph Stiglitz “ Olon Ulsiin Valyutiin San”, “Delhiin Bank” bolon busad zasgiin gazraas “hugjig bui ornuud”-n ediin zasgiig demjih zorilgotoi ugsun tuslamjiin mungu margaash ni l gehed Swiss Bank-nii dansand ali hediin orchihson yavj baidagtai holbon tailbarlasan baidag. Tegvel Mongold odoogoor tulgarch baigaa uniin het hoorogdolt ( inflation), Amerik Dollariin tengert Tulsan hanshnaas hen hojij taarhav… Unuuh l heden turiin tolgoid baigaa uls turchid, bolon tednii nuluund ajlaa erheldeg corporate businessiinhen. Dollariin hansh nemegdej, Mongol tugrugnii hansh sulrah tusam Mongol Oron bolon Mongold amidrah gej yadaj baigaa dund davhargiinhan, tusviin ajilchid, huviaraa business erhlegchid geed Mongoliin hun amiin ihenh huvid ni hundeer tusaj baihad harin unuuh heden oligarchuud maani harin ch ulam bayarlan gadaadaas zuvchuulsan heden dollaraa Mongold uchnuun tugrug bolgochihood jinhene haan shig l duraaraa tsengej Mercedesee unaj Louis Vuitton-oo baritsgaana…

2008-06-18T00:11:00.000-07:00

Thank you soo much Kevin Bales for leaving a comment on my blog~!!!

www.freetheslaves.net

2008-06-13T21:47:00.000-07:00

I apologize for always posting my same dull school papers. But i just find it much easier to keep it on my blog rather than saving it in a flash. This one is my final paper from last semester, still dunno what i got.Hope it will give you a little more information about human trafficking and slavery.

Human trafficking and modern day slavery

We say that slavery has vanished from European civilization, but this is not true. Slavery still exists, but now it applies only to women and its name is prostitution.
~Victor Hugo

Slavery has long been existent in our society. It can be traced back its root from the ancient Greek and Egyptian civilization, to the 15th century Spanish and Portuguese colonialism. In relatively modern times, the Nazi regime created labor camps that forced people to work to death. Same thing was existent in Russia during the 1930s to 1960s, with complex lagers (labor camps) consisting of thousands of laborers from Eastern Europe. Slavery in America also began soon after the English colonists first settled in Virginia.

Many people now believe that the Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery along with the ratification of the 13th amendment. Still, we think that slavery was put to an end when most countries outlawed it in the 20th century. But as a matter of fact, there are more slaves in the contemporary world than it ever had in history. According to the census of the United Nations, there are over 4 million women being sold from one country to another, and there are over 10 million children in brothels around the world. These women and children are forced to become sex slaves without any escape. The victims of sex slavery are mostly women and children from the rural areas of third world country brought to the major cities across the border. This kind of human trafficking has been increasing significantly in recent years, and it has become the 3rd largest transnational crime in the world. Human trafficking is a highly organized crime with its links ranging from the legitimate corporations to terrorist activists. The study from UNICEF proves that a human trafficking is an international industry worth of 10 billion dollars.

Specifically, Southeast Asia is the heart of the human trafficking and sex tourism. Girls from the impoverished rural towns of Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Philippines are sold as low as $200, and some are promised a job offer in the cities but instead they would be locked up in brothels. In fact two third of those girls are sold, kidnapped, coerced by someone they know including relatives and family members. The pimps would tell the girls that they can buy their way out little by little until they are rich, or they would tell the girls that they send money to their family back home. A girl named Chantha from Cambodia who escaped from the brothel tells the reporters that she was offered to be a maid in a house, but instead kept in a brothel and forced to have sex with as many as 15 to 20 men a day.

There are many reasons why these inhumane evil still exist today. Under-education of women is a contributing factor to the forced prostitution. About 80% of women in Cambodia are illiterate and only 5% of the girls ever finish school and the rest only pass through 3rd grade. There is a very few availability of education in the rural areas, and the boys are chosen over girls for the opportunity to go to school. With such limited education and knowledge they are easily deceived. Poverty is another major factor that contributes to the sex slavery. Most of the people in these regions live on a daily basis of hand to mouth. Parents have difficulties providing food for their children, so some parents sell their children for strangers, and husbands sell their wives. Some girls sacrifice themselves in order to add a little more income to their families. Others are offered a job to do in cities to support their families, without knowing what they are getting into.

Young girls are sold into brothels as early as their 6 and 7 years. In the streets of Bangkok there would be 7 year olds dressed in miniskirts ready to be served in exchange of pocket money. Men are seeking for younger partners nowadays, because of the less possibility of getting infected from sexually transmitted diseases. The customers would not hesitate to pay higher price for HIV free virgins. But in the near 5 years or so, those little girls themselves get diseased with HIV or other diseases and left on the streets waiting for their death. Study shows that 70% of those who were child prostitutes are tested HIV positive. Once they are treated that way, it is almost impossible to go back to society and live a normal life. First, they are infected with diseases and second they carry the shame of their situation throughout their entire life. In other words, they become the untouchables of the society after such humiliation.

A British anthropologist Louis Brown spent several years in conducting intensive research on human trafficking in Asia. Along the way, based on his various works, he found out that majority of male customers of sex tourism are Asian men, and two third of all adult Thai men have visited brothels at least once. This shows us the human rights level in that area, and how the society tolerates such inhumane act.

There are laws against sex slavery in these areas, but often the girls are the ones who get arrested while the customers and the pimps remain behind the curtain. Some girls escape and run to police for help; but sex slavery is a highly organized crime that law enforcement agency workers are even involved in most of the cases. The street polices are rewarded with $700- 800 for hiding a case, and in fact they are the major customers of the brothels.

Despite the street polices there are diverse group of participants in the human trafficking business. Government officials, law enforcement agency workers, legitimate travel agencies, lawyers and even gamblers are involved in this business since it is an opportunity to make lots of money. In Indonesia, the brothel complexes’ annual income is estimated from $2 to $3 billion, which is around 1- 2.4% of its GDP. In Thailand, sex tourism produced $22-$27 billion dollars between 1993 to 1995, which was a 14% of the country’s total GDP.

Living conditions in the brothels are terrible, and usually two, three girls share a room that virtually consists of single mattress. One girl from Nepali who was trafficked in a brothel in India said that she was kept in a dark room with no window for 2 years along with two other girls. Often they were beaten and raped by unknown men and they were fed only once a day. And the girls would sometimes talk about how it would be to feel the sunshine again. (Brown p.226)

Speaking of India, India is the lead country that dominates the human trafficking victims. According to a sociology professor in Roehampton University Kevin Bales’ data, India only by itself contains estimated number of 20 million slaves. (Zhang, p.108) Here people are mostly trafficked from Nepal and Bangladesh; recently Nepali girls younger than 10 year old are becoming one of the main targets of sex business in India.

So, Nepal and Bangladesh girls are smuggled into India, Cambodia and Myanmar girls are sold into Thailand. Unfortunately, this human trafficking does not only take place in Southeast Asia. Girls from Eastern Europe are smuggled and sold into the rich metropolises of Europe such as London, Paris, and Berlin etc. In America, the US state department intelligence reported that there are between 45000 and 50000 women and children being trafficked each year. Majority of these girls are from Mexico, Colombia, and other Latin American countries.

If you see this pattern, you might have realized that human trafficking business which has its roots from excessive poverty starts from the rural areas of a country to the cities and from the cities to overseas. Most of the victims of human trafficking are citizens from post-communist countries. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union along with opening of China, the world has been experiencing the largest rate of human migration. The mighty Soviet Union collapsed in a matter of overnight and proved the absolute failure of communist utopia. The government has been creating artificial employments, and the communist regime could not handle it anymore. The factories no longer held 5 workers for a job that actually required one worker; no longer had they needed 5 people to milk one cow. Within a night millions of people found themselves a surplus; jobless and homeless.

China took an inauguration policy shifting all the resources to the central cities leaving the rural citizens behind, while Soviet Union did not know how to respond. The whole Eastern bloc was under a crises during the early 1990`s, with the same reason. The people of Lenin had no idea how to respond to a capitalist system and how to make a living, as they were so used to the ex-government control. In search of jobs and way of living, they migrate from their rural towns and to the cities, but intense competition for jobs in the city would not give them a chance. Many of them try to flee to a different country, hoping it would accept them in the society. Unfortunately, at each step of the migration, those people become more and more vulnerable. Meanwhile, others are organized into networks to take advantage of their vulnerability by exploiting the migrants for their filthy profiteering.

In the contemporary world, globalism not only ensured the free movements of trade and capitals. But at the same time, it increased the mobility of human smuggling and transnational crimes. With increased mobility and networking, the human trafficking is the fastest growing cross-border business, with its executives and advocates ranging from regular pimps to multi-millionaires, and political leaders. From a different perspective, globalization does not bring equal opportunities for people. The difference between a third world and first world countries are very transparent in a global capitalism, and rather than filling the gap between the two bipolar, administrators of political spectrums see the situation silently with tolerance.

Within an overnight, communism collapsed and Western capitalism swept the whole Asia-pacific. Not only it brought new ideology, it brought new value to the whole region. People were considered as rich by the acre of lands they owned, by the number of cattle they raised. But the western capitalism forced its own economic value too quickly, that many countries could not make the adjustment. They were offered the capitalist dreams, but now they are left on the markets. In this new century of “human rights” and “equality”, the people from a vulnerable society are being used as serving agents to the capitalist markets. In fact, the human trafficking business does not end, because the demand for it does not let it stop.

The exploitation and slavery are the central debates against globalization and human rights in a modern world. But as we struggle through this debate, there are new forms of human trafficking that are not yet recognized by law and have not been heard in mass public. After the breakdown from the Soviet Union in Mongolia, and following the collapse of communism in the early 1990’s, the first generation of street children was born in Mongolia. Due to economic crises, many parents abandoned their children and created the first generation of orphanages as well. Those kids live around the main public centers such as mall and restaurants begging for food and money, and in winter they live inside underground holes where the heating pipes go through. However, in the past few years it was vivid for the society that the visibility of those street children was far less that what is used to be.

Unfortunately, it is not because the economy is improving or the street children are being taken care of. Sadly, it has been suspected that those children were sold to Korea for body parts trading. Healthy organs can cost thousand of dollars in a developed country, and there were some serious suspects and probabilities of human trafficking business which they export the street children and sell their hearts, lungs etc for different purposes.

The other shape of human trafficking that is not well known among us is the link between human trafficking and terrorism. Obviously, terrorists do not rely on growing corns and rice to support its terrorist activities. They tap into already established illegal channels to acquire the needs and funds to continue their mission. In many parts of the world, especially in the Balkans and Southeast Asia, money made from human trafficking is used for arms sales and funding of terrorism.

In Eastern Europe, the destruction of social fabric caused by the war, massive migration flows, and the economic collapse of the early 1990’s all contributed together to create fertile ground for dealers of human being and arms sales. There is hardly anyone who has conducted a research on that very link between human trafficking and terrorism. Most of our knowledge on that matter comes from anecdotal stories in the newspaper, or reports. Dejan Anastasijevic is one of the few researchers who write on such topic. He is a free-lance Balkan correspondent for “Time” magazine, and according to him, vast quantities of weapons left over from the World War II are in the hands of dealers, to be exported and used for terrorist activities. Dejan writes that during the war Yugoslavia maintained 4th largest army in Europe, accompanied by the matching industrial complex. Nothing was thrown away destroyed after the war; instead they are stashed in secret warehouses for trade and future use. Albania, Serbia, Kosovo and some in Bosnia and Croatia are well loaded by the remaining army stockpiles as well.

These weapons are exported illegally through the use of already established illegal transnational channels such as human trafficking. These groups might have been engaged to help Saddam Hussein and according to Dejan, “The series of contracts, secretly closed between Saddam's and Milosevic's governments in late 1999, resulted in a flow of weapons and equipment to Baghdad, including armor-piercing missiles, rockets, anti-tank ammunition, tank engines, various explosives, chemical stabilizers, and grenade launchers, as well as missile fuel, MiG aircraft engines, spare parts and expert advice on how to configure air defenses against the US.” The human trafficking and illegal arms sales are deeply intertwined as both of them are embedded in the pervasive culture of corruption.

The people of these regions are sick and tired of being exploited by transnational criminals. While writing this paper, I came to a conclusion that the population explosion that flooded the post communist market and the revolution of economic globalization, accompanied with human violence and corruption are the major factor that created this vulnerable society of millions of people. The sweeping economic globalization forced the rural people for migration and dispossessed them to slavery and exploitation. Now, the new market economy is stretching its arms and taking advantage of this vulnerable society.

It is not the first time happening in the world, as a matter of fact the Industrial Revolution in Europe and America brought a similar social distinction to the population. Now, the newly developing countries are facing the same challenges and repeating the same pattern. While rapid economic growth brings luxury and new technology to some, others are being consumed and sucked into this system to be used as a cheap labor and to be taken advantage of. The only care we can show this social stratification, is to eliminate the extreme poverty. You have read that how people in these regions live on a daily basis of hand to mouth, and how they become vulnerable to trafficking and slavery when they are in desperate need of money. To make matters worse, population rate is high in the third world countries, and rural regions of the world as opposed to the developed countries. The population growth rate of France is 0.5, Germany -0.3, UK 0.27, US 0.88, Italy -0.02 compared to developing nations of Asia such as Cambodia 1.75, Bangladesh 2.02 ; Nepal 2.05 and Philippines 1.73. The surplus population of these vulnerable societies is in fact born outside the system of universal human rights. 1 out of 10 children in these poor regions will become prostitutes, as if they were destined to do that.

Sadly, the world is generating this human rights distinction by tolerating it with ignorance and silence. Amnesty International, Greenpeace and UN have millions of supporters worldwide, but their concentration on fighting against human trafficking is very little compared to their over-all mission. The only main groups working against human trafficking is Free the Slaves in America, and Anti-Slavery International in Britain. ( Bales, Kevin p.258) But together they have fewer than 15 thousand members world-wide. And the rest of their work is trapped by public ignorance.

In America, people are not aware of what is going on outside of the border. It is a common notion to think that the world evolves around them, and other issues are simply treated with ignorance and arrogance. It is written in the first article of universal declaration of human rights, that: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in the universal Declaration of Human Rights, without distinction of any kind, such as race, creed, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

Still, the world itself generates the distinction between people based on their race and economic level. The reason why human trafficking does not get the public awareness as it is suppose to is because, the victims are all from a small countries. Not just human trafficking, terrorism has long been existent in our society, yet it only got mass media attention after 9/11 and America got involved in it. The human trafficking issue that involves millions of women and children in different parts of the world should be a world phenomenon that must be addressed. After all, we need to remember that “The tears of the red, yellow, black, brown and white man are all the same” and start caring for things that are going on across your border as well.

2008-03-26T00:37:00.000-07:00

Kundun

Manai Azi Sudlaliin professor neg kinog uchirgui ih yariad unav. Tuvd bolon Dalai Lamiin talaar Amerikchuud tasarhai sain kino hiichihsen chen Hyataduud harin daramtalsaar baigaad kinog ni olon niited haruulahguigeer boycott-lchihoj gene. Unendee "Seven years in Tibet"- iig tootsohgui bol Tuvdiin talaar hiigdsen uur dorvitoi buteel baihgui baih. Beijingiin surduulgees bolj Hyatadad baitugai, Amerikt ch olnii hurteel bolj chadaagui unuu mundag kinog ni uzeh zavshaan ene 7 honogt tohiovoi!!
Getel terniig ni manai Mongol aguu yum bolohooroo ali hediin Undesnii Televizeeree gargachihsan, bi hurtel 8 nasandaa olood uzchihsen "Kundun" gegch kino baiv. Kinonii huvid ch gaihamshigtai, Oscar Worth buteel ! Tuvdud boslogo degdeed, Hawaii-d professor guai mani metiigee Hyatadaar amisgaluulaag baigaa tul bugdii ni holij hutgaad heden yum bichyu gej bodloo.
"Kundun"- iig uzej baihd Dalai Lama ug ni olon oron ruu bichig yavuulaad l tuslamj husdeg. Amerikaas baitugai UN-ees yamar ch hariu uguhgui baisaar baigaad l argaguin erhend Dalai Lama Enetheg ruu durvej, Tuvd Hyatadiin erhend ordog. Hervee ter uyed UN shiidverleh arga hemjee avch Hyatadiin tsergiig barij baisan bol baidal unuudur shal uur baih baisan. Odoonii Tuvdiin boslogoor dahiad l uchnuun lam nar ami uregdej baigaa ch UN shiidverleh arga hemjee avahgui baidliig tuilshruulsaar baigaa. 1994 ond bolson Rwanda-giin genocide iin uyer ch gesen UN arga hemjee avahgui baisaar baigaad uchnuun myangan Tutsi nariig uhuulsen. UN bol delhiin enh taivnii tuluu temtseh #1 baiguullaga baital harin ch uurgee dutuu bieluulj ediin zasag bolon uls turiin neg ih ach holbogdolgui ulsuudiin politict oroltsohoos zailshiij baigaa met.
Tengisiin helsneer bol UN buur neg bureaucratic bourgeoisie type of organization bolson bololtoi. Gehdee nuguu talaas UN non-violent, diplomatic argaar asuudliig shiideh geed tsag avch baigaa ch baij medeh yum. Yuri ni bol Tuvded bolson gashuun tuuh Mongold davtagdahgui gej batalgaa ugui. Hyataduud odoo hurtel "Middle Kingdom" iin uzleesee salaagui, havi oriin gazruudaa uurtuu negtegchih geed dairchihdag tal bii. Manai bagsh " China has a long history, it can play around with" gej bilee. South China sea bolon Taiwan-iig ch ulaan tsaim Hyatadiinh gej zarladag, Solongosiin taliig ch bas manai Koguryo dynasty gej metgej uzsen, Tuvdiig hurtel ezelsniihee daraa "Welcome back to the motherland" gej helj baigaa ni shal durgui hurmeer.Mongoliig ayagui bol Chin dynasty-giin uyes ehelj Hyatadiin neg heseg bsan manai region gej claim hiihed gaihah zuilgui. Yuun Chin dynasty,tuuhchid hurtel Khubilai khaanii Yuan dynastyg Hyatadiinh l gej zaadag shu dee. Tiim bolohoor Mongold urnuud baigaa anti-Chinese movementuud arai l zambaraagaa aldaj, tuilshraad baigaagaas bish bas ch gej hooson hiirhel demii zuil bish. Uug ni bol minii bodloor Tuvdiin tusgaar togtnoliig demjih ni Mongolchuud bidend ashigtai met. Herev Tuvd yag Olympiin umnu ingej duulian tarij baigaad tuurga tusgaar uls bolchihvol, Taiwan bas official sovereignty zarlah gej dairah bolno. Taiwaniig dagaad Yunnan, Xinjian geed l Hyatadiin tum bum minority regionuud bas l Beijingiin esreg eserguutslee ulam idevhjiileh bolno. Dotroosoo hevreg bolson Hyatad guren sulran unahad Uvur Mongold maani ch tusgaar togtnoloo zarlachih zavshaan tohioh yum biluu. (Za za, jinhene zuunii prophecy hiichlee ^_^ )
"Kundun" deerees Buddhism iin tuhai bas negen zuiliig olj harav. Buddhism ni uuruu ih hultsengui shashin buguud, Hyataduud Buddhismiig Mongold gazar avahiig yagaad uuhshuulj baisniig gaihah yumgui. 9 zuiliin aliv amitaniig hairla, nugel hiij amitanii ami taslahiig tseerlesen denduu enerengui ch geh yumuu ene shashiniig Mongold tugseneess hoish Mongoliin huch nileen buursan. Hediigeer Buddiin surgaalid 4 uneniig dagaj, aliv amitaniig hairlan nugel hiihees zailshii gej surgadag ch yag yug unen yug nugel geed bgaag ni olj harahad mash ih tuvugtei. Yuri ni bol denduu gun uhaanii ene shashiniig mani metiin mass-uud uchriig ni olj shutehed ih berhsheeltei. Tegeed l nugel hiisen ch baisan gesen heden lam nart 1000 Tugrug ugch nom unshuulaa l butsaad ariuschihdag. Yuri ni Buddiin shashiniig turiin shashin bolgoson Mongol, Tuvd hoyr niigemdee neg l sain devshilt gargahgui baih shig. Odoonii 14r Dalai Lama nas barahaar, hen ni ch haanaaasaa 15r Dalai Lamiig todruulah yum bilee. Yadaj baihad Mongold Enkhbayar guai Shashin Turiig Hoslon Barigch boloh geed zutgechih bololtoi yumaa.

2008-03-22T17:17:00.000-07:00

IMDB: Against the backdrop of a magnificent but harsh natural landscape, a Japanese photojournalist encounters puujee, a young girl who tames wild horses on the Mongolian plains.

Movie comment:
This incredible real life drama is sure to win awards and your heart without a doubt. Please don't miss this incredible real life story of Puujee and her family. I met the director of this incredible film and he is as humble as he is talented. The camera captures real life emotion that you rarely can expect from the big dogs these days. I truly hope this becomes a favorite as it shows, struggle, culture, real life event, pain, laughter, friendship and love so beautifully. It also tackles stories many of us couldn't even imagine. Mongolia gets your attention with this film and captures a spirit of the people that is truly gorgeous. I hope you enjoy this film as much as I did. It will remain in my heart.
Uneheer uruvdmuur kino, made me cry several times ;(

Puujee (Part I)

Puujee ( Part II)

2008-02-08T17:39:00.000-08:00

My Mongolian World

Amazon deer baidag Oxfordiin gargasan Mongoliin tuhai tomoohon nom bolgon deer shahuu Onon Urgunge gej ner baidag. Nernees ni bolood ch yumuu, ter huniig neg zaluuhan seheeten emegteigeer l tusuuldug bailaa. Harin uchigdur sanaangui baij baigaad " My Mongolian World: From Onon bridge to Cambridge" gedeg uuriinh ni namtariig olj unshiv. Getel harin yun zaluuhan emegtei, 1919 ond tursun, Chingis haanii Altan urgiin 31 dahi uye, Demchugdongrob gegch huntaijtai Mongoliin Autonomit Zasgiig tusgaar togtnuulahiin tuluu temtsej yavsan hun baidag yum baina. "Nuudel Suudal" deer l Chingis haanii direct descendant Middle East-d 1920 ood biluu dee oniig hurtel amidarch baisan gej bichseniig unshsanaas uur Chingis haanii udmiinhanii talaar todorhoi medeelel unshij baisangui. Harin ter Demchugdongrob huntaij gegch 1960 oniig hurtel Mongold amidarch baisan baih ni.
Manj, Mongoliin togloomiin turiin uyed Onon Urgunge Tokyogiin Ih Surguuli, deerees ni Johns Hopkinsiin ih surguuliig tugssun ni heden socialist ornuudad l ochij surdag baisan Mongolchuudiin huvid hovorhon l tohiol baisan baih.Tokyo-goos Amerik ruu shiljih uyedee tereer :" i wanted to leave the disintegrating world around me for a safer and more stable place. But i still longed to see my mother,so i took a train to Wangyemiao. Sadly,having arrived there, i heard that my mother had died.I regretted having left things too late, yet I also felt the snapping chain. Now i could turn towards the west..." gej dursjee. Tokyogiin Ih surguulias Johns Hopkins-d surahaar yavsniigaa nomondoo " Beringiin hooloig gatlaad end suurishsan Indianuudiig es tootsvol Amerikt irsen anhnii Mongol bi bolvuu." gej bichjee. Hediigeer tereer dahin Mongold ireegui bolovch Mongoliin tuluu hiisen zuil, nutgaa sanah huslen ni bichsen huudas bolgond ni shingij uldsen met. Gants Onon Urgunge ch bish, eh nutgaasaa durvej garaad ergej ireegui Mongolchuud delhiin untsug bulan burt baigaa. Cambridge tugssun Uvur Mongol professor Uradyn Bulag hurtel " I dreamed of going to Mongolia, the Mecca of many Inner Mongolians, if not all..." gej bichsen baidag. Daanch ter humuusiig unelsen ni ch ugui, dursdag ni ch ugui.
" How strangely things turn out. Perhaps my village beside the Naun River would have afforded me a more secure and tranquil existence,but i think not." Gevch taivan amidral hangaj ugch chadaagui turiin maani buruu yu, uursdiiguu bodood nutgaa orhin odson tednii buruu yu.
Saaral tuuhiin yavtsad bid hedhen Mongolchuud salj butarj yasvan ni unen. Gevch bid neg l uvug etsgees garaltai, neg l usnaas undaalj ussun baij gadaadad garsan negnee erliiz, hurliizaar ni duudaj gaduurhan uzeh ni haramsaltai.

Hudam Mongol bichgeer bichsen uuriinh ni shuleg:

"The Mongol Yurts"

Untouched by the fate that topples dynasties,
Why should the Mongol yurts be victims of mighty dynasties yet to arise?
The Mongol yurts stand in ranks under the generous light of the
sun in the golden firmament
And still they stand for ever under the silver rays of the crescent moon.

2008-02-04T18:39:00.000-08:00

Altan Urag- Mongolian Folk Rock Band.
- Superb!!

2008-02-04T18:37:00.001-08:00

One more video.

2008-01-31T16:16:00.000-08:00

Notes from "Nationalism and Hybridity in Mongolia"

...Now, 36% of the entire Mongolian population is reported to be erliiz, of which 31 % is Chinese erliiz. It is calculated that in the capital Ulaanbaatar alone there are 85,000 Chinese erliiz. The rest are concentrated in such places as Hovd, Zavhan, and Selenge aimags and Darhan and Zuunharaa cities.
... The era of nationalism at the beginning of this century saw marriage become a controversial issue for the first time. One of the complaints in the petition sent by Mongolian representatives to the Russian emperor for support of Mongolian independence in 1911 was that the Manchu government had decided to allow the Chinese to marry Mongol women: ' Originally, marriage between Mongols and Chinese was forbidden; but as a result of a ' New Policy', it was declared last year that such marriages have been approved. ( Onon and Pritchatt 1989:12)
The Mongolian prime minister Tserendorj, in the 1920s warned again: "Our girls are greedy for sex and money , and they are increasingly having sex with foreigners. But women are the mother of our nation. In the future i am afriad our descent will degenerate' ( Batnairamdal 1991)
Why did Mongolian women bear the brunt of the blame for marrying foreigners? They continue to be scolded by men today, as will be discussed shortly.This phenomenon can only be explained by women's role in the nation-state. Athias and Yuval- Davis suggest that there are five major ways in which women are involved in ethnic and national processes:

1. as a biological reproducers of members of ethnic collevtives
2. as reproducers of members of ethnic collectives
3. as participating centrally in the ideological reproduction of the collectivity and as transmitters of its culture
4. as signifiers of ethnic/national differences- as a focus and symbol in ideological discourses used in the construction, reproduction and transformation of ethnic/ national categories
5. as participants in national, economic, political and military struggles.

... At the beginning of the 20th century when there were about 600,000 Mongols, there were also some 75,000 traders, 15,000 Chinese workers and crafsmen, and 5000 Chinese agricultural labourers.

2008-01-04T12:25:00.001-08:00

Understanding Hamlet

“Hamlet”, first published in 1603, is one of the most problematic, and controversial texts in all of Shakespeare’s work. All the “ambiguities” in the play show his genius and that basically is what makes it Shakespearean. His audience cannot come up with a consensus on how we should understand the play, but it is a provoking brain exercise to try to grasp the real interpretation of his work. Hamlet’s father, the king of Denmark is killed by his brother, Claudius. Not long after his death, Claudius takes the right to succession, overtakes both Hamlet’s crown and his wife. The ghost of the dead king reveals about his murdering to his son Hamlet, putting him in an obligation to avenge the murderer. Hamlet’s struggle with his internal mind and the delay of the revenge keeps the audience and critics come back to the play nearly four centuries to try to solve the ambiguity in his disordered actions. A single judgment of the text is not applicable of the text, nor is it applicable to see ‘Hamlet’ through a single lens.

We can say that Hamlet is a play about revenge, and the problem starts with the ghost demanding “justice.” The ambiguity in this part is Hamlet is compelled to bring political and social justice in Denmark, though he was “forced” to commit something unjustifiable. Revenge and killing is morally condemned by Hamlet’s Christian beliefs and his audiences’. That way, the old king’s ghost is not a symbol of justice, but it would be a symbol of the devil, trying to corrupt Hamlet with his instruction to kill. At the end of Act II, Hamlet expresses his fear by saying, “the spirit I have seen may be a devil.” He is not sure if the ghost is a gobbling demon from hell, or an angel from heaven.

Herman Ulricci’s once famous “the conscience theory” states: “It cannot be an entirely innocent and heavenly spirit that would wander on earth to demand a son to avenge his death.” This is why Hamlet begins to struggle with himself, and delays so long to carry out the revenge. It is not vivid how long exactly he delayed, but if he had followed his father’s voice for revenge he would have had the opportunity to kill Claudius when he was praying, but he did not. This convinces the critics that Hamlet had mental disorders or at least some secret that led him to delay the action. It is inconceivable to say that the world’s greatest mind (Shakespeare) would prolong the action in what is considered the universal masterpiece just to make his play long enough to please the audience.

Some critics say that Hamlet was a coward, and “his delay is a manifestation of his fear of getting hurt.” However, throughout the play, we see Hamlet being courageous enough to take immediate actions. He acts quickly and decisively for arranging the death of Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, and he did not hesitate when taking Laertes on in a duel. A man who shows no indecisiveness when stabbing the listener behind the curtain, and crying a malicious mockery towards his enemies is obviously not a figure of weakness and cowardliness.

Even though he is capable of taking swift decisive actions, he has a psychological struggle with himself during most of the play. Some of the concepts show that Hamlet is not sure of the ghost and he carries on the monologue about agonizing over his inability to carry out the task, and he constantly asks himself why he is behaving the way he is. Hamlet asks "What should such fellows as I do, crawling between earth and heaven?” Hamlet makes no decision of taking revenge for his father’s death; instead he goes on with compulsive soliloquies mired in ponderings. That is why some critics, including T.S Eliot regard to Hamlet as a failure, pathetic character “dominated by an emotion which is inexpressible because it exceeds the events that occur”.

I think the other factor that kept Hamlet to do something unjustifiable is his youthfulness. He is a student who ponders about the meaning of love, politics, life, death and the nature of human beings. The sudden death of his father, the revelation that his uncle is the assassin, his mother’s hasty marriage with his uncle, even the betrayals of Gertrude, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Laertes show that the entire world is rotten. It was a big shock for a young romantic prince like Hamlet who grew up in a full, wealthy family without being exposed to the hardships, and cruelties of life. His deep disappointment towards the value of life and love could have caused disgust towards life. This reminds me of a quote by Aldous Huxley, “Maybe this world is another planet’s hell”. Throughout the play there have been many incidents of Hamlet having suicidal thoughts in mind, but by procrastinating to take his revenge on Claudius, he can prolong his suffering in this rotten life.

O that this too solid flesh would melt
Thaw, and resolve itself into dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d
His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world! This is an important soliloquy that he considers suicide, talking about desiring his flesh to melt since the whole world is unprofitable and rotten.

It is hard to tell if the prince is just acting mad, or is he really suffering from mental illnesses provoked from a sudden shock. The audience is conscious of the fact that his talks are sometimes irrational and absolutely incoherent. Claudius says: “There’s something in his soul Over which his melancholy sits on brood/ and I do doubt the hatch and the disclose Will be some danger” (Act 3, Scene 1) suspecting that he might have lost his mind. The ambiguity in it is that his madness is hidden by word transmissions through simile, metaphor and most importantly word play.
Ernest Jones, a disciple of Sigmund Freud takes the “madness” case to the extreme level and explains Hamlet as an oedipal figure in his book “Hamlet and Oedipus”. The conclusion of the book states that, Hamlet is ashamed and disgusted of his sexual feelings towards his mom, and killing Claudius would make him admit his feeling. The feeling he produced about the fantasies of childhood makes himself feel guilty and constantly reminds himself that he is no more than Claudius, the man who he is suppose to punish. That is why he is hesitating to kill the man that his mother is having an affair with. I do not see Hamlet as an oedipal figure that has developed a sexual feeling for Gertrude. If he had such devoted feeling towards his mom, he would have felt jealousy towards his father rather than another man. There is no evidence of Hamlet that he wanted his father out of the way, and secretly wished for his mother’s affection. Neither do we have an evidence of how was Hamlet’s relationship with his father before his death. However, In Act1, scene 2 Hamlet compares his father with Claudius and refers to his father as the real man who deserves the throne and his mom.

So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother,
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! This soliloquy is the only important evidence that Hamlet was respectful and loving to thy father.

In his defense of oedipal complex theory, Freud argues that such thoughts of Hamlet that had been present in his childhood, but those thoughts were oppressed by educative and profound influence of filial piety. As his father dies, he felt the monopoly to take over Gertrude’s affection on an absence of his father and somehow felt satisfaction of finally getting through with him. Freud explained: “the personal crisis undergone by Hamlet awakens his repressed incestuous and parricidal desires” meaning the once oppressed feeling now glimpses and his “unconscious” part of brain starts to wake up. It might have led Hamlet to get stunted by Oedipus complex and turned him into a lustful and somewhat mad adolescent.

The man, who is stunted by Oedipus complex, according to Freud’s theory, is most likely to seek for a woman in any ways similar to his mother, who can take the presence of traits in her characters and elements. Ophelia, on the other hand has nothing to resemble the presence of Gertrude. Her naivety, obedience, and simplicity is everything that is opposite of the characteristics of Gertrude, and there is no answer why Hamlet chose a woman that least reminds him of his mom. The reason might be Hamlet’s impetuous anger derived from the unconscious thought of “Why did you not choose me, after my father’s death?” Thus he might have chosen Ophelia to use as an instrument to set against his mom. Furthermore, she might have been an instrument chosen by Hamlet to hide his Oedipus complex. I do not think Hamlet ever loved Ophelia; he saw her as a mere object and treated her like garbage.

Most part of the play is concentrated on Hamlet himself, and there is no focus on Ophelia and Gertrude’s past. The little role she has in the play makes her look like a sympathetic, weak figure. However, feminist critics concentrate on her character and conclude that Ophelia’s characterization is a look of typical Elizabethan women. Feminists also say that Shakespearean plays are in a patriarchal society dominated by men, and women are merely seen as objects or means of exchange in power relationship. We don’t know about Shakespeare’s moral view, but even a genius like him is influenced by social norms and values. Take for example, Shylock from “The Merchant of Venice”. He is a character developed from the standard stereotypes of stingy Jew and the play depicts anti-Semitism. In “Othello”, Othello strikes Desdemona in public and brutally orders her in bed. His killing of Desdemona is seen as a necessary punishment for woman being unfaithful. In “Hamlet”, Gertrude is somehow seen as exchange of power shifting, and Hamlet cries “ Frailty, thy name is woman!” blaming the gender for her mother’s indecisive actions.

We can see that Hamlet was rather disappointed by his mom. As it almost seems like that he was more shocked and disappointed for his mother’s hasty marriage than his uncle’s betrayal and murdering of his father. During his soliloquies he expresses that he is horrified at his mother’s sinning than his uncle’s, and he uses the word “wicked” to refer to her action. The main message we can get from the feminist critics is that the reason for delay is because of Gertrude. Hamlet thinks his mom is the one who sinned; therefore the revenge should be taken from her. There remains a horrible idea of destroying his mom, but the ghost’s reappearances urge him to spare his mom and confine his attentions to his take avenge from his uncle. He bitterly cries: “what should I do?” and indeed he is struggling with himself to kill or not to kill his mother.

Having now talked about Hamlet’s problems and its ambiguities, what if Hamlet was a character developed based on a real person to greater or lesser extend to express Shakespeare himself and his inner thoughts. One cannot solve the mystery of Hamlet without contextualization and without bothering to enter to the philosophy of the author. There must be in some point a correspondence between the author and the character. As the main masterpiece of Shakespeare’s works, Hamlet probably expresses the core philosophy of Shakespeare’s philosophy. Shakespeare even might have put his own heart into the creation of Hamlet. One of the most influential historicist critics Hippolyte Taine’s opinion on Hamlet was that: “Hamlet is Shakespeare…which has all some features of his own; Shakespeare has painted himself in the most striking of them all.” If Hamlet was Shakespeare himself, we have quite a few evidences of Shakespeare being a homosexual or at least bisexual. His plays have heterosexual context, transgender issues. Some of his sonnets depict his deep feeling for a young man, and it seems like he was inspired to write by the beauty of men. Take for example, sonnet 20, which caused a much debate, because Shakespeare has devoted a powerful affection to a male friend, and shows deep sensual love.
A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false women's fashion;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue, all 'hues' in his controlling,
Much steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created;
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure. The figure has the beauty of a woman, but he is not fickle as woman, he is more sincere than a woman. Therefore, he catches the attention of all men and also amazes women. This sonnet is addressed to a young man, who Shakespeare was much affectionate about. His sonnets 40-52 still remains controversial among critics. If Hamlet is Shakespeare, and Shakespeare is gay, Hamlet must have been gay too. Oedipus complex theory would explain that Hamlet’s deep affection to his mother and facing rejection, betrayal from that love reverses Hamlet’s feeling and produces hatred. His hatred toward his mother could have gone deeper and he started despising all females including Ophelia. Thus his betrayal and rejection might have led him to his homosexuality.

According to Dover Wilson, “After 1600 a strain of sex nausea runs through almost everything Shakespeare wrote.” Certain turning point in Shakespeare’s personality could have caused emotional experience, but so little do we know about him, we cannot come up with a consensus to explain Hamlet through Shakespeare himself. Throughout the play, there is no given evidence of Hamlet being Shakespeare despite his deep relationship with Horatio, and he refers to him as “My, sweet Horatio!” However, that does not prove anything; it might have been just a form of male friendship of the Elizabethan era.

Having been discussed about Hamlet’s problems including delay of revenge, youthfulness, mental suffering, and sexual relationship we still cannot solve the mystery of Hamlet. By creating the character of Hamlet, Shakespeare might have even tackled himself with a story that he does not even understand. Dover Wilson said on Hamlet’s character: “It puzzles Hamlet, it puzzles us, and it was meant to puzzle us”. If it was meant to puzzle us, then we are meant to be puzzled, and it is almost beyond our imagination to reach to the heart of the enigma. That is the beauty of, and that is the delusion of Shakespeare’s work.

P.S~ Works cited is not included in here.

2007-11-21T01:46:00.001-08:00

2007-09-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

POSC 220
Reaction to China Fragile Superpower

Everyday, the media and critics prophesize the ascending power of China to call of an end to the US hegemony and to become the next superpower of the world. China is reemerging as a major power almost after hundred and fifty years, after being toppled by the British Opium war( 1839-1842), followed by the loss to Japan in Sino Japanese war( 1894-1895). It was a “century of humiliation” to the proud people of China. The Chinese people are still carrying the burden of humiliation even though it is now an advanced country with a huge economy, almost surpassing the US. As it becomes more economically advanced, the government has doubled the military spending. Such action increases the insecurity of the neighboring countries, and furthermore its astonishing growth will conflict with the US hegemony.

However, the Chinese leaders deny that it is going to be a threat to other nations. According to them, “China wants to trade, and they are asking for an economic competition, not a military contest for power.” In fact, China has already started its role as a responsible superpower. It has joined the World Trade Organization, and the nation is spreading its sphere of influence by increasing diplomatic and business relations with overseas countries and companies. It shows that China is joining the law abiding nations, and opening its doors wider to foreign markets. This is a big step for China to seek international stability to relieve the people from poverty and domestic stress. Despite the economic boo, it is still a weak country with serious environmental problems and a population of more than 100 million people living below poverty line. According to the facts I got from the CIA government website, China GDP per capita is 5 times lower, and military spending is 6 times lower than the US. This fact proves that China may be an emerging power, but still it needs another decade to be an equal superpower with the US. It is irrational to predict a possible war between the two countries.

Misperceptions leads to wars; one country misinterpreting the other’s behavior can cause an enormous damage to international relations. It is important to make a careful hypothesis in order to prevent future conflicts and war from breaking out. China’s growing power may not be a big threat to the US, but the neighboring countries are suspicious of its ambitious imperialism. There is no guarantee that China’s growing market and economic competition will not lead the nation to seek for geopolitical contest around its neighboring countries. China is a country with the longest borders, with 14 countries excluding regional borders of Hong Kong and Macao. Those countries are strategically important border regions for the fragile superpower of China, which needs to find a solution for its excessive environmental pollution and improvement for the 100 million people living in poverty with no access to drinking water. China’s government is at the same time, very suspicious of their own people too. The government maintains the control over the people through public propaganda. They ignite people’s nationalism through euphemism, and always tell them that the communist party is necessary for China to stand against the foreigners. It will be hard for the government if its one billion people get angry. Regional imperialism is one way to improve Chinese domestic stress without having them rebel against the government. Shirk also wrote that the biggest insecurity of the Chinese leaders is not foreign threat, but a possible rebellion of the peasant and overthrow of the Communist Party.

History shows us that Chinese government has always been an expert on using its human resource and public propaganda for geopolitical domination. Manchuria is the latest but not last victim of China’s geopolitical domination. The people of Manchuria have dissolved in Chinese large population and completely vanished in terms of culture and heritage. Non Chinese minorities who are living in Urumqi, Xingjian, Tibet, Nepal and Inner Mongolia will be the next victims to be sucked into China. Furthermore, this Chinese ideological imperialism will threaten more of Asian developing countries. Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping has once said: “Hide our capacities and bide our time, but also get some things done.” The Chinese are getting it done silently from a regional to a world power.

2007-02-14T19:21:00.000-08:00

Notes on Communist Manifesto

In the spring of 1847 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels agreed to join the so-called League of the Just, a revolutionary secret society. The league offered to publish a Manifesto drafted y Marx and Engels as its policy document. Later, it was renamed “League of the Communists” and committed to the object of ‘the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the rule of the proletariat, the ending of the old society which rests on class contradiction and the establishment of a new society without classes or private property.
Although both Engels and Marx drafted the papers, the final text was certainly written by Marx and was published in Feb, 1848.
Over the next 40 years the Manifesto conquered the world, carried forward by the rise of the new socialist labor parties, and issued in several hundred editions in some 30 languages.
The aim of communism was derived not from analysis of the nature and development of capitalism but fro a philosophical argument about human nature and destiny.
In the 1840s the conclusion that society was on the verge of revolution was implausible. Nor was the prediction that the working class would lead it. Within weeks of the publication of the manifesto a movement of the Paris workers overthrew the French monarchy, and gave the signal for revolution to half of Europe.

Communist Manifesto Aphorisms

-A spectre is haunting Europe- the spectre of communism
-The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.
-Modern Bourgeois society with its relations of production, of exchange and of property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world, whom he has called up… The conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to encompass the wealth created by them.
-The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.
-The bourgeouise has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage laborers.
-The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere,settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere.
-The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilization.
-It compells all nations, on apin of extinction, to adopt the bourgeous mode of production;it compels them to introduce what it calls civiliation into thier midst,i.e.,to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.
It has created enormous cities,has greatly increased the urban population as compared with the rural, and has thus rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life. Just as it has made the country dependent on the towns, so it has made barbarian and semi-barbarian countries dependent on the civilized ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois, the East on the West.
-It has agglomerated population,centrazlied means of production, and has concentrated property in few hands.
-The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together.
-The lower strata of the middle class-the small tradespeople, shopkeepers, and rentiers,the handicraftsmen and peasanst- all these sink gradually into the proletariat,partly because their diminutive capital does not suffice for the scale on which modern industry is carried on, and is swamped in the competition with the large capitalists, partyl because their specialized skill is rendered worthless by new methods of production.
-The distinguishing feature of communism is not the abolition of property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property.
-In bourgeoi ssociety capital is independent and has individuality, while the lviving person is dependent and has no individuality.
-The communists are further reproached with desiring to abolish countries and nationality.The working men have no country. Since the proletariat must first of all acquire political supremacy, must rise to be the leading class of the nation, must constitute itself as the nation,it is ,so far, itself nation, though not in th ebourgeois sense of the world.
-Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience.
-The first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of rulin class, to win the battle of democracy.
Th proletariar will use its political supremacy to wrestm by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state, and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible.

10 testimonies of Communism

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2.A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebells.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national banck with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6.Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.
7. Extension of factories andinstruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8.Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture,
9.Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distirbution of the population over the country.
10.Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production etc.