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So I’m here in an ginormous internet cafe in Shanghai and have to call BS on those “pro-democracy” slash “anti-China” groupies. They’re mostly full of crap.

Two examples, both involving public TV.

In my hotel room I found a couple of English-speaking channels. One is Bloomberg and the other is CCTV #9.

I watched a lot of Bloomberg in Seoul and Kaohsiung and one of the day-time hosts is Bernard Lo. In one segment that was aired last night as well as today, he interviews Christopher Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong.

Guess what they talked about for 15 minutes? Every touchy political subject known to man, including that uber god, Mr. Democracy. To the horror of the hippie SDS, none of the words were bleeped out. Nor did a floating Big Brother insignia replace the image of Lo’s head. My door was not busted down and I have thus far gone unmolested by men in grey jumpsuits with red armbands.

Exhibit B, Yang Rui is the host of Dialogue, an interview format show on CCTV channel 9. Today’s episode involved a discussion with two people from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Jessica Matthews (its president) as well as a VP were on the show.

And they also talked about every controversial topic relating to the Bush legacy. In fact, this was actually an entertaining interview because Rui would word things very strongly, like “will Bush be remembered as the worst president?” and better yet, he called out the hypocrisy or as he said “the double-sided nature” of non-proliferation policy the Bush administration has had towards Iran and how the administration ignores Israel’s nuclear stockpile altogether.

And while critical of Bush, Matthews is a bit of an establishment partisan, refusing to blame the neocon agenda for a slew of other quagmires. But that is neither here nor there as nothing was bleeped out or obviously censored. Though, maybe I’ll come home and find my TV rearranged in pieces on the ground.

Extra-credit for extra-horror

Sites not blocked at my current location:

LewRockwell.com
Antiwar.com
Mises.org
The English-version of Wikipedia
My webpage (obviously)
Facebook
Drudge
isoHunt
Google Reader
Youtube
All of the financial sites I listed on Wednesday

Be sure to check out some thought provoking pieces from Spiked Online as well as Professional Protesters and the Political Class. Oh, and maybe The God that Failed is germane here too.

So how’s this for coincidences.

I just finished eating with one of my Korean coworkers. He also got a hold of Spore last night (like me). He is dating a girl from Canada (like I used to). He just moved back from Shanghai, where he taught (and where I’ll be moving to in a couple months to do the same thing). He recently watched the screener of Mummy 3 (as did I) and didn’t like it (as did I).

And the drum roll: he also keeps up with financial trends through Peter Schiff’s website.

Okay, I made up that last part, but during the conversation it turns out he does read a wide-array of literature to keep up with the various global securities markets — because he invests throughout the world. And he is perhaps the first guy I’ve met overseas that actually understood what a subprime mortgage technically is (usually, I explain it in 30 seconds with: no shirt, no shoes, no job, no problem!).

This last part is important because he lived in Korea during the Asian Financial crisis back in the late ’90s. Whenever that topic comes up in a conversation with Koreans, they usually become ghosts because of how relatively hard the conditions were. Stock market performance was non-existent, dozens of large companies went bankrupt. The currency was crapola (they ended up floating it, which is actually a good thing, but hurt in the process).

One of the stories of that time was that Koreans were told not to push the “close door” button in an elevator because it was seen as wasting money.

Another story - and a true one - was that after pleadings from government officials and corporate executives - to stave off complete collapse - thousands of Koreans were asked to donate their personal stashes of gold. Wedding rings, family heirlooms, sport awards, the whole nine yards (that should give you an idea of how “nationalistic” Koreans can be) were all given to the state and it actually propped up their system.

My students usually refer to those years as “IMF.”

Seriously, they just say “IMF.” It was during this time that the IMF “helped” restructure the fundamentals of the Korean economy (although, as I and others have noted, nothing was really fixed).

Well, the hushed tones are back. Many of the Koreans that I work with speak of nothing else but another IMF event on a daily basis . A number of them have tried to close their pensions and exchange all of their Won to another currency. Financial analysts in this country expect the caca to hit the fan by the end of the year (at the latest) and even as early as October.

Foreign capital is literally leaving by the car load and the Korean government is trying to sell off bonds in an effort to prop up the Won which has been getting killed in FOREX markets.

The way this ties into a small world is that as a foreign holder Korea is sitting on about $36 billion in US treasuries and recently purchased $550 million in Freddie and Fannie debt.

And because that money percolates throughout the financial markets and down through federally subsidized housing and student-loan backed securities, I’m fairly certain that statistically speaking, I know someone in the US whose lifestyle is being financed by a Korean taxpayer. Taxpayers like my coworkers.

So the next time you see an Korean national walking through the street, give them a hug for helping you and ask them if they also played Spore.

[About the pictures: they were taken last week on an island near Incheon called Muido, great people, great sand, great activities]

Note: some have argued that Korea’s central bank will come out unscathed in the Freddie/Fannie bailout because US taxpayers will foot the bill (lucky them, right?) but this still does not bode well for brilliant investments like KDB purchasing large shares of Lehman Brothers. Isn’t there a really big possibility that performance will still be poor, like other SWF investments?

See also:
No Silver in the Silver Lining
Updating Your Holiday Card Address Book
Who is ultimately financing the injections by the Treasury?

I was talking to an old friend in Taiwan and realized that I hadn’t put up many pictures from my life and times there.

So here are some:

This was taken during my stay at Liuchiu Island southwest of the main island. I went with coworker of mine and we terrorized the locals and flirted with the women. Okay, maybe not, but the story behind the beer is kind of funny. Both of us were about to head to bed when we heard someone say hello. As we were the only foreigners on the island, we proceeded to track down this voice and it was attached to a group of Chinese tourists.

Actually, the group was comprised entirely of Chinese travel agents from Hong Kong that wanted to see if the island was the next Jeju-do (a Korean island that is a popular vacation spot). They proceeded to stuff our faces with dried squid and play drinking games. Unfortunately Team USA lost to the Hongs. A sad day indeed.

My coworker and I were uber popular just for being us. Seriously. You’ve heard stories of locals in Beijing approaching people just to be in a picture (my friends experienced that last month). Well, the same holds true for their rebellious counterparts in Formosa. This was taken next to the light house on Liuchiu island.

So there are a million Buddhist temples all throughout East Asia, and many of them look the same. The reason I chose this picture is because I look semi-cool with my bike helmet. Fortunately I didn’t show you the picture of my bad ass cruiser, aka 50cc scooter. Actually, if you get a chance, you would probably enjoy speeding around the hilly, yet scenic island. The weather was superb the weekend I visited Liuchiu. And, don’t tell my doctor, but I drove around without a helmet — and tried to emulate a ride down Highway 1.

This is near my home in Kaohsiung. I just wanted to point out that most urban centers in East Asia look like this: developed. Imagine that, people, just like you and I, wanting to live in an air conditioned room, far away from subsistence on rural farms… how dare they!

I briefly mentioned the March election over at AWC. This is an image of a daily occurrence during the run up to the election. Motorcades run by volunteers drive down each and every block blaring music and campaign statements through mega phones. It is kind of cool the first couple of times you see it simply because it is alien to Westerners used to automated phone calls or mass mailings. And each candidate is given a number to be identified with. This was done because it aids those who are illiterate. Thus, don’t blame me, I voted for #9!

This was taken on January 8th, my first evening in Taiwan. I was on a bridge in downtown Taipei and was amazed by the army of scooters that seemingly owned the roads. This was a few blocks away from the Shin Kong building.

I don’t recall the importance of the shot, but it is in downtown Taipei near the Far EasTone building (the easiest place for a foreigner to get a cell phone) and McDonalds (yes, I did actually eat there). Just like I ate at McDonalds in Japan and have done many a time in Korea. Be sure to also check out the Big Mac Index.

So I had a chance to visit Fukuoka yesterday. It’s a nice-sized city on the west side of Japan (just south of Busan). I wandered throughout the extremely clean and orderly boulevards for a good six or so hours (and have a super sexy sunburn as a result).

While I’ve been to downtown Tokyo very briefly at night, this was the first time I’ve been to any of the main islands during the day — and boy they aren’t kidding when they say Japan is highly industrialized.

Aside from the warehouse district (which I also meandered aimlessly through), the entire core is cleaner than downtown Seoul, Taipei or Kaohsiung (the big cities I’ve lived in thus far). Everyone was well-dressed, air-pollution was non-existent, and they all drove on the wrong side of the road!

Food prices were about par with Dallas or Seoul (Taiwan is by far the cheapest I’ve been to yet).

All the young women, if they weren’t dressed up in business suits wore impossibly small micro skirts. No complaints there.

It was kind of funny to see a line of men and women standing in front of a large magazine rack at 7-11. Apparently what you see in movies and cartoons is actually common-place: you find a book, pop in your headphones and just read standing up… in public.

I noticed less English in both advertisements and public transportation, but this could just be a result of distractions, like the young nurses that wore skin-tight clothing… as they road bicycles. Speaking of which, while all of the cars and buses on the road were modern vehicles, there were a large number of old school cruiser bicycles in use (not crazily zooming around like you see in videos from China).

And everyone walked with a different, more sophisticated air of confidence. I attribute this to the fact that Japan as a whole has pretty much been at the forefront of economic and cultural development for the past century. Conversely in Taiwan and Korea less than a generation ago most people still lived in a rural farm, and thus are still adjusting to a higher standard of living — and not walking around in pajamas (seriously, I’m not trying to make fun of “poorer” people, but some of the gitups are pretty funny to see).

This was taken right before sunset. Apparently the guy was a local man that liked to play for an hour or so each day on the park situated in the middle of the lake (Ohori Park). He even had a mini-amp connected to his guitar. I have no idea what the name of the song was, despite recording it, because the microphone on the camera didn’t work : (

There was a canal that cut the central business core into two areas.

If you’ve seen the film Lost in Translation, one of the more interesting aspects to global advertising is that you can find a famous celebrity on just about any product imaginable. One has to wonder if the star has any idea where their face is appearing on. Take for instance this beer vending machine that has the mug of ol’ Tommy Lee Jones on it. Sexy.

Obligatory Hello Kitty signage. I’ll be honest, despite the stereotypes, I didn’t feel inundated with ads for our friendly pink ambassador.

The other day, one of my kids asked me if I knew who Stone Cold Steve Austin was.

It’s great to know that he is an ambassador for American culture.

The kid also loves Hyundai, in part because his dad works there as an engineer. He was visibly disappointed when I told him that the Toyota Camry was the best selling vehicle in North America. Followed by the Accord, Civic and Corolla. Damn those Japs!

It’d have been funnier to read about how Doug Bass climbed into his Toyota Prius, spurs and all.

And I honestly didn’t meet real cowboys until I was in college — those are some good stories.

If you’re interested, I’ve written a couple pieces in the past week or so.

One discusses free-trade agreements and Korea.

The newest one discusses the peaceful rise of China.

And you may also be interested in the “shared” posts in Google Reader. So find me on that.

Also, a shout out to Eric Garris, who fixed a number of little errors in the China piece. It’s the damndest thing, apparently I saved two different copies (a normal one, and a bad ass one) and sent LRC the normal one. It was missing a number of little corrections I’ve made that for whatever reason, never made it into the final draft.

For instance, if you read the Chinese piece, my two versions have two completely different footnotes for number 9. Here is a good nugget that never made the published copy because of my tomfoolery:

According to a recent story by the Associated Press: 130,000 PLA troops “repaired more than 14,600 kilometers, or 9,100 miles, of roads, installed 220,000 shelters and relocated more than 1.4 million people” over the course of two months.

Anyways, the moral of the story is that while it is good to store and backup copies in various places, be sure to title them differently to properly distinguish them.

Note: agh, even one more recent note didn’t make it: China & Russia recently signed a border agreement. How’s that for peacefully handling disputes?

From the latest edition of Vanity Fair, How the Web Was Won:

Sky Dayton founded EarthLink, an Internet-service provider, in 1994.

Sky Dayton: I owned a couple of coffeehouses in L.A., and I had a computer-graphics company that I co-owned. And I heard about this thing called the Internet. I thought, That sounds kind of interesting. The first thing I did is I actually picked up the phone and dialed 411, and I said, I’d like the number for the Internet, please. And the operator is like, What? I said, Just search any company with the word Internet in the name. Blank. Nothing. I thought, Wow, this is interesting. What is this thing anyway?

I’m sure most geeks have their own stories about “where were you the first time someone was futureshocked.”

Mine involved an English class I had back in junior high — spring of 1994 taught by the volleyball coach Mrs. Gorby.

We were assigned one of those loathsome busywork projects and after class I asked the teacher if I could use some sites on the Internet for references.

She asked “What’s the Internet?”

I don’t remember what I turned in but I’ll never forget the quizzical look her face gave me. Priceless.

Note: fortunately for me my dad was an early adopter, having installed an ISDN line in the early ’90s so he could connect to the libraries at the University of Texas at Dallas just down the road. I have other stories like this as well. For instance, in 1996 I used the super cool and independent Hotmail (pre-Microsoft). When I told my friends my email address they all thought I was talking about hot males and porn. Classic. [P.S. Who doesn't love 5 MB storage limits?]