How China Beats the U.S.

Globalization enabled corporations to cut costs, pay less salaries and pensions and reduce inventories.  Internet age made it much easier to have as low raw material inventory as possible.  The downside of this is that any interruption of the flow of the materials would cause chain-reactions down the pipe and all the way to the end users or consumers.

Take the flooding in Thailand for example.  American Public Media reported that "Thailand was such a key manufacturing base. It is a key point of transit for both computer parts -- hard drives in particular -- but also auto parts. It supplies other parts of the world but it also has assembly plants here; so in both cases in the auto industry.

"But also the parts shortage is causing big problems much further afield. In the United States and in Europe, for instance, Honda has had to cut production. Same with computer hard drives. Looking ahead towards the Christmas rush, there are already worries that they're just not going to be able to get the kind of parts they need. So it is a crucial hub in this region -- not just for Asia, but much further afield."

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan caused similar headache globally as well.

We'd better be prepared for such troubles in the future.  Overtly relying on the foreign suppliers, could be a security risk.

China, with its accumulating wealth, is heading to a clashing course with the U.S. headlong.  If these two countries are engaged in a war, China could beat the U.S. easily by withholding shipments of all those iProducts, such as iPhone, iPad, etc.

The inconsolable American consumers will storm our governments and pledge their allegiance to whoever would deliver their coveted goods and would be gladly to start to sing "The East is Red"!

[East is Red was a folk-song based ode to the great dictator Mao Zedong.]

Inside Richard Serra's Sculpture "Sequence" at Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University

Three weeks ago, I visited Stanford University's Cantor Arts Center and was deeply impressed by an outdoor monumental steel sculpture "Sequence" by Richard Serra.  Due to time constraint, I wasn't able to go inside the twirling spiral spaces formed by curved gigantic steel plates. 




Last Friday, I was able to do just that and I was even more astonished, enchanted and enraptured.  The most interesting aspect, besides its gigantic size and endless changing forms, is the ever changing interplays of colors, shades, shadows and lines.  The warm autumnal sunlight gave it a particularly inviting tinta, in the natural environment, and an unexpected sensuality.

I wonder what it might look like once it's moved to the new wing at SFMOMA. If it would be held indoors, I'm afraid that some of the magic would be lost. Therefore, try to see it, and walk around and through it before it leaves Sanford.

Below are several pictures I took and video compilations:

Second Thoughts on the Sculpture "The Blind" by Lorado Taft

On 17 November, I shared my thoughts the "Rodin and America" exhibit at Cantor Art Center, Stanford University.  I was profoundly moved by a sculpture named "The Blind" by American sculptor Lorado Taft; this sculpture reminded me the novel "Blindness" (The City of Blind) Jose Saramago:



I was very happy to have the chance to see it again last Friday, and was able to spend more time to inspect this work more closely at leisurely pace.

Indeed, the second viewing had revealed many details I didn't take notice at the time when I was blown away by the weighty and dramatic mass as a whole.

Now, I noticed the modulations of the rhythmic lines of the group, the individualism of the faces, etc.  I suddenly saw then, that in the middle of this group of blind people, a child, rested on his mother's shoulder and hands, were not blind.  He obviously represented hope and future here.  The open arms of the man behind him emphasized on the importance of this baby.  The baby's right arm stretched out, in a pose could be constructed as blessing, such as baby Jesus does, or like that of the command of Chairman Mao.

Suddenly, this details completely changed my perception of this work.  It became very sentimental and lost a great amount of gravity.  I believe that the work was created in 1907-08, before the "Great War".  I wonder if it were created after World War One, if the sculptor would not impose his optimism upon this group of down-trodden people.  Maybe not.  Or Maybe yes.  Americans are by nature optimistic, almost pathologically so.



I am so disappointed by the artist's failure to be more profound and moving.  What a missed opportunity!

Related article: Rodin and Richard Serra in Cantor Art Center, Stanford University

The Bountiful Table on Thanksgiving Night

Finally, I am relaxed enough to post pictures of the dinner I enjoyed on Thanksgiving night, or Black Friday Eve as some might call it.  Very gratifying.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

This morning, when I went downstairs to get my morning newspaper, I was startled by the big package.  Giving thanks to this?  No way.





These are the things I thank for:







Happy holiday!

Construction As Art - UC Berkeley's Student Resident Hall

University of California, Berkeley's new student resident hall at the Anna Head site has been growing steadily in the past few months and now, in anticipating of winter rainy season in San Francisco Bay Area, the construction crew wrapped most of the building in white sheets and made the construction site a unlikely art installation:

























True, it is not as fancy as the wrapped Reichstag in Germany by Christo and Jeanne-Claude below, but is quite interesting in the understated way.

Taking Full Responsibility at UC Davis - Chancellor Katehi Must Go!

Following up the police brutality against peaceful protesting students at University of California, Davis (UC Davis) (see video below), Chancellor Linda Katehi did some PR dance, took full responsibility and tried to apologize.  The police chief at UC Davis had been put on paid administrative leave.  But demand for the resignation of Chancellor Katehi continued.


Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis

People are devided at how much blame Katehi should shoulder.  However, if she fails to resign or if the Regents fail to fire her, it is not convince to say that she has taken full responsibility.  Hiding behind her subordinates would not do.

Remember, Chancellor Katehi was hired in 2009 with great controversy.  Her $400,000 annual salary, approved by the UC Board of Regents, equated to a 27 percent hike from her predecessor and a 12.4 percent increase from her previous position at the University of Illinois.  That happened during the time when the funding to the University from the state had been cut year after year, after staff and faculty were forced to take unpaid furloughs, and endless tuition hikes threatened the quality of the university system.  It was an obscene amount of money thrown at a civil servant, a public university administrator.

I sincerely don't believe that she had ordered the spraying or green-lighted it. But, that fact hardly matters.  If she had the aduacity to demand such exorbitant amount of salary, she must be held responsible for every action on campus during her watch.  Otherwise, she should not have taken in such salary from the public university.  It cannot be that achivements were hers but blames were others.

In a way, Katehi is the embodiment of what is wrong with our country and what people are protesting against.  For too long, it has been profits for the rich and the finacial misery for the poor.  That must change.

People have been frustrated by the lack of clear and tangible goals and demands from the Occupy Wall Street movement.  Now, in UC Davis, there is a clear and tangible goal.  It is holding Chancellor Linda Katehi responsible and have her replaced.

Chancellor Katehi must go!

Winter Storm in San Francisco Bay

Winter storm is coming and though it inconvenient people, it does remind people how beautiful and wonderful the nature can be:









Above pictures were view of San Francisco, taken across the Bay from Berkeley last Thursday.