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Mother USA's Labor Pains in Giving Birth to a President
November 21, 2000
We used to watch, with awe, the presidential elections of the USA. In the latest election, which is still in doubt at present, has aroused my interest to look into the unique American ELECTORAL COLLEGE SYSTEM. It was a compromise between electing presidents by Congress or by direct popular votes. As a result, there were elections in which John Q. Adams won, in 1824, with 30.92% of the popular vote while the loser, Jackson had 41.34% popular votes; In 1876, Ruthford B. Hayes won with 47.95% against Tilden's 50.97%; Benjamin Harrison defeated Cleveland with 47.95% against 48.62%. It looks 19th century history may re-occur in 2,000.
In this millenium year, because of the heated campaign, the American election has put the country into confusion or in suspense. Besides the recounts of votes, court injunctions have been applied. There are even reports saying one candidate may follow a SCORCHED-EARTH policy in this election war. The results, instead of the usual CONFETT showered on the winner by the losing side, it has become a mud-throwing soap opera.
I have no intention of only discussing the USA domestic political issues, but I wish to point out certain interesting phenomema in Asia, particularly in PRC.
In PRC, the USA presidential election has drawn unprecedented attention among all walks of life. One Shanghai evening paper, in their desperate try to be the first to release the USA election result, announced in the early morning of Nov 8, 2000 : GORE ELECTED.
Besides dispatching an OBSERVATION TEAM to Georgia to learn HOW THE AMERICANS ELECT THEIR PRESIDENT AT THE GRASSROOT LEVEL, the central goverment in Beijing scheduled, on purpose, no meetings on Nov 8, 2000 so as to enable all government high-ranking officials to watch, uninterrupted, the election across the Pacific
Among the Chinese people, there is an even higher enthusiasm to be abreast of the election. Because of the somewhat closed information given out by the massmedia, the only way to have quick or immediate news of the election is either via internet or by satellite news. As a result, it may easily be true that they are paying more attention to the USA presidential election than to the communists' CHOOSING of the party's secretary-general or CHOOSING the chief-of-state.
It looks peoples on both sides of the Pacific have so many things in common, from McDonald's burger to the Americans' home politics. While the mother USA is in the throes of labor giving birth of the next president, even the people under the communists are having worries or anxieties about who would be the next US president.
The US and PRC governments have been trying to have a steady STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP between them; we can also see,via this election, the possiblity of a genuine neighborhood between two peoples of the Geocity or the Earth Village. If our thinking follows this track, there will definitely more OPPORTUNITIES to be found for each and everyone of us. Let us exchange views on what are those possible opportunities in the near future when the election dusts have settled down.
Liars and Bears
"All political parties die at last from swallowing their own lies."
John Arbuthnot : Quoted by Garnett, Life of Emnerson
November 3, 2000
One if the most common stories told by our gandmas was THE WOLF IS COMING. The moral of that story was to advise us not to tell lies. Taiwan has touted itself as a democratic country, while developed countries praised it as a WINDOW OF DEMOCRACY in Asia. Intoxicated by this kind of favorable comments, many Taiwan political leaders have given numerous promisory checks to voters in order to be in power, particularly in last presidential election.
During that campaign, we watched with surprise politicians giving all kinds of promises to woo votes, such as, annuities for the aged--regardless of their wealth or properties; no new or heavier taxes, etc... The opposition party even gave additional promises for an INDEPENDENT Taiwan, plus a bullish stock market from 7,000 to 10,000 index points. As a result, the opposition candidates won, although by a very small margin.
Since then, no more promises have come from the elected politicians, but beautiful slogans abound. However, economic affairs are stonecold. In subsequent months, Taiwan stock investors, instead of seeing bulls, have been seeing the bears' continued stampede. It is really a modern version of the old 'wolf is coming' story.
So far, Taiwan's stock market has been tagged as "highly speculative", a place where many investors make fortunes or lose their shirts.
If you are a stock investor, either for short trading or longterm investment, we have some valuable advices for you.
E-mail: VJCHANG@hotmail.com
Tel/Fax USA : (301) 438-7439
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