January 2006 Archives

Sometimes you have friends. Sometimes you don't. Time always tells.

Reading CNN today I found that Pat Robertson has again pissed off a large mass of people. Apparently he called the major stroke suffered by Ariel Sharon an act of "divine retribution" for dividing the holy land.

Such nonsense could be expected from zealots of any religion but traveling back to America I was struck by just how much of this there was in my home country and the hypocrisy associated with it.

Much of America is fixated on the radical muslim clerics as dangerous, idiotic, backward people who are against progress and prefer to impose on other their superstitious beliefs. And it's true, that in the Middle East there many countries have extremely large populations of backward people who choose to live as though it were 100 BC. The radical and even unradical segements cover their women from head to toe for this simple reason that they don't think they could control themselves from trying to hump everything that walks by. Only if they blow themselves up and kill innocent people can they begin their humping of 72 virgins in Heaven. How sad is that? They are living proof that we have evolved from Apes, even though I don't mean to insult the Ape since even they can control themselves better than many men.

However, what many Americans fail to see is that it has it's own brand of Radical Cleric by another, and for them more comforting name, called the "Pastor." While I was back home, I counted no fewer than 10 Christian morning shows which hyped up their congregations into a crying, hyper-excited frenzy. Among the most ridiculous was the "diving money transfer" where the preacher promised that if you came to his church and truly believed, God would actually put money into your bank account or give you a new house. This was alongside his sales of holywater, payable by cash on delivery to purify your home.

Among the most popular shows is the 500 club which is a bunch of idiots who get together, condemn everyone who is not Christian and are basically a grouping of the greatest minds from Farmtown, Iowa who get all the learnin they need from the Bible. Their leader acted just as violent as the radical clerics by calling for the assassination of Hugo Chavez. The only reason they probably haven't actually tried to do it, is we live in an excellent country who usually does not let religious fanatics do what they want (current government excluded). Pat also said that "hellfire and brimstone" would decend upon a small town in Pennsylvania for favoring evolution being taught over "intelligent" design.

Therefore, it is interesting to note how many Americans feel threatened by the radical muslim cleric but more comfortable with their own brand.

It will be an interesting point of history 1000 years from now when future generations look back at the technical progress being made at this time, but the relative failure to let go of the superstitious beliefs and traditions of organized religion. Through science, and the amount of knowledge available to us, many still believe that sprinkling their house with "holy" water will somehow magically protect them. They still believe that sacrificing things on an alter and consuming that which is sacrificed will transfer strength to them just as the pegans of old. Although now they don't kill living things since they are "civilized" but prefer to do it symbolically........

In my last entry, I was just about to embark on a month long vacation which would take me through Tokyo, to North Carolina, Ohio, back to Tokyo and then finishing in Saigon. I'm now on my last leg of the trip and writing from my hotel in the Tokyo town of Ikebukuro. These holiday trips always go so fast and after months of waiting for them, they are over in the blink of an eye.

I didn't get a chance to write about my experience going back to America but now that I'm sitting here in my hotel suffering from jet-lag, to awake to sleep but too tired to go out, I thought this would be a good chance to write about some of my discoveries.

As most of you know, I rarely write unless I get fired up over some political story or some shocking discovery. Well, I had a few shocks in America that I feel like writing about and sharing with the rest of the world.

When you travel to Vietnam, the guide book tells you to watch out for getting overcharged or "nickeled and dimed" when you go to Saigon. Sometimes the local merchants will try and charge higher prices but it's usually by only a dollar or two. This gives many people a bad impression of the wonderful people that are the Saigonese.

What I discovered in America is that the Vietnamese may "nickel and dime" foreigers from time to time but it is nothing compared to the outright thievery practiced by some American companies. These companies outright rob their customers and they don't even know it.

1. Rebates - Rebates are the biggest form of stealing that I came across in America. I went to Best Buy to purchase a few items, almost all of which advertised a price in bold letters for lets say $30 and in small letters, "with rebate." The actual price of the item turned out to be almost $70!!! While purchasing the item the clerk handed me receipts three miles long for the rebates from three different companies! It took me almost an hour to figure out what which receipts, bar codes cut from the boxes, and other miscellenia to send to the retailer, manufacturer and distributor.

The layperson may not give it a second thought, but as a business major and one who has lived abroad and knows to be on guard for swindeling I was outraged. This is outright stealing from the customer since the retailers, distributors, and manufactures know damn well that maybe half of the customers won't bother to do it which increases their profits. If the price is advertised as $30, then the customer should be charged $30 at the damn cashiers counter. Even if you do get all the rebates sent, there is no guarentee you will get your money and it also states you must wait about three months.

2. Pay as you go Sim Cards for cell phones. I have a quad band cell phone that I can use in Vietnam and America. I bought the phone last year in America as well as an American Sim card. In Vietnam, it's very cheap to buy a sim card and the pay as you go is also pretty cheap. But when I went back to America, I found out that my SIM card was cancelled and I had to get a new number. This is because if you don't use it for 30 days they will cancel it. Also, the pay as you go costs either a dollar a day plus ten cents a call, or 25 cents per call. I opted for the second option but found out that $25 only lasts about a week! If you call someone and get voice mail, it's 25 cents. You also get charged for incoming calls. What a rip off!!

3. My mother bought a printer for the computer and I was completely dumbfounded to learn that the cord which connects the printer to the computer had to be "purchased seperately." This is again, a business's efforts to rip off the consumer by making them purchase every damn part seperately so the printer can seem like a good deal until you have to purchase all the damn parts to make the thing actually work. What's next, purchasing the power cord, buttons, screws etc, seperately??? I thought America was a developed country!!

Aside from those incidents however, my trip back was a great one. It was good to catch up with old friends, hit my favorite restaurants and go to the movies which huge screens. I will be however, glad to get back to Saigon where they aren't yet that sophisticated in the art of thievery.