Disconnected

Yesterday my internet and cable service was mistakenly dis-connected; I had already lost my phone service last week.  It all started when I called the cable company to plan in advance, trying to do a good deed and have everything ready before the big move, explaining explicitly I thought, that I would be moving on the 20th or 21st of September which is safely two weeks away. But being clever and prepared is not a good thing; the company went out and dis-connected the service almost immediately. Morons do exist in all corporations, lying in wait like Laurel and Hardy ready to play havoc on one’s best laid plans. So one comes home after work without cable and internet, which is a catastrophe for some folks, and just hope for the best, drinking bourbon on the rocks. So I spent time last night and most of this morning working with the company to get back my services but to no avail. The best that can be done to re-connect my services is next week on 13 September. Just in time for my wife to be back home. At least I got my bill down by about $ 20 dollars.

I missed the president’s acceptance speech last night at the Democrat convention in nearby Charlotte, North Carolina. At least I was able to see some clips of Bill Clinton’s speech the other night, which was really a performance; one will not see the likes of him or even of Obama for a long time. The game is on in the  coming weeks all the way to election time, a political event that I have been reading about since I was a young man, watching movies and reading books back in Asia, comparing the event with local politics back home. Now I have a chance to experience it first-hand. I recall my first reading of American politics in Theodore White’s ‘The Making of a President’ series especially his book on the Kennedy election. This introduction led me to other books like David Halberstam’s ‘The Best and the Brightest’, also about the Kennedy years. The fact is John F. Kennedy is probably the first candidate to run for a presidential election in an intelligent and calculating way - against all odds, against an intelligent incumbent politician like Richard Nixon who was no slouch himself, and win. His victory became a template for ascending politicians like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

I guess it says something that recent Republican candidates are wealthy people, scions or married to partners from successful or wealthy families (both Bushes, McCain and Romney) excepting Nixon and Reagan while the Democrats excepting Kennedy and John Kerry, have risen from the ranks though Carter was a peanut farmer. But the argument does not really hold though recent memory seems to confirm this observation especially Obama and Clinton who have risen from nothing, using their own brilliance to strive ahead. So the support from extremely wealthy people for Republicans shows a clear bias in this election that some game is afoot. When my cable service was cut, my initial thought was a deliberate act to prevent people from watching Obama’s speech. I guess stress and paranoia and conspiracy theories come together. Happily I was not pissed off on losing my connection and being out of the grid. Instead I prepared dinner of minced meat cooked with garlic, onions, tomatoes and potatoes, watched the video movie Doctor Faustus, dozed off and read the chic literature on Brooklyn mothers. What a waste!


Early this morning I woke up early, took down my MP3 player and radio, connect it to a speaker and listened to NPR boradcast. At least I was not completely cut off. I made my way to work, slightly late, called the cable company and prepared for my meeting, which turned out well. Later I borrowed a MIFI unit and prepared for a weekend without cable television but with a plan to connect to the internet and complete my assignments on the online courses. It may not be that bad after all being disconnected.

Learning to Swim

The hysteria towards the Louisiana oil spill is reaching a feverish pitch. Television images depict gut wrenching devastation; birds covered with oil, marsh lands, coast lines and oceans thick with splotches of slick black oil. Fishermen groan about the impact on their livelihood. Newscasters lose their objectivity and start blaming the White House. It seems that the general public is baying for blood. Even the president is affected and starts looking for someone to blame. Some news channels even point to the president himself. I think these people would like the president to don a wet suit, dive into the ocean and cap the spewing oil himself before they change their rhetoric.

I guess it’s a question of perception than actual taking control. For example, after the devastating Oklahoma bombing, Clinton staged a press conference and gave commanding orders to the government agency (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives or ATF) to take charge of the investigation. He combined soaring and angry rhetoric with the image of being in command. I think Obama needs to learn from this episode. The media fall out would be limited if he had staged a similar press conference and publicly assigned a government agency (ex. Coast Guard or EPA) to take charge of the operation with the help of the beleaguered oil company - BP. This would give the impression of leadership, decisiveness and resoluteness.

The focus would have shifted away from the president and to the assigned agencies tasked by the White House to handle the crises. But the incident was left to develop by itself perhaps due to misunderstanding the damage to the environment and loss of people’s livelihood in the area plus the ability of the oil company to fix the problem. So now, after more than 50 days of elusive success, everyone is looking for someone to blame and the only one left is the president. If there’s anyone who should be responsible, it’s the Louisiana governor. He is the man on the ground directly answerable to his constituents affected by the oil spill. The governor should have stepped up and directly took charge.

It is sad that a blaming culture has entrenched itself into the national consciousness. One is aghast at the things the allegedly conservative televisions say about the president. There is no rigorous analysis of events but a gut reaction to maintain conservative ‘truths’ no longer relevant in modern times. This negative atmosphere is results in a negative reaction from the president himself. I think he needs to take a page from Reagan and paint a more optimistic and hopeful future. After all, current statistics like job growth, home sales and the general economy seem to be moving up. But the good news is being dampened by the oil spill crisis, European bailouts, the Tea party and a seemingly ugly backlash against incumbents.

The trash talk is about a repeal of the health care bill, exploiting a seeming rage against incumbent politicians who are for big government. I don’t think this negativity can be sustained all the way to the November elections. The economy is improving, a number of people are getting employed and unemployment benefits are going down. I am reading a recent book called ‘Reset’ by Kurt Anderson. The writer claims that the country needs to ‘reset’ its national life and begin a new direction adapted to current realities. For instance, telling people to buy smaller homes due to the recent financial crisis, to save more and avoid living a large ‘lifestyle’ of excess. It’s a good book to understand the current malaise. But one feels a big change is coming; starting with 9/11 and the last election. Despite the focus on rising Asian countries like China and India; there are big ideas being fought here (big government or not, alternative energy, health care reform, financial reform, immigration reform, etc.) with new innovations (Google, iPad, Face book, etc.) and so on that will change the game for many years to come.