speach tree

something came over me just now, as i finished writing holiday cards to ppl in japan. my grandmother is in a private hospital, blowing all her decades of savings in the high-income ward where she was placed when she collapsed from diabetes complications. she cycles in an out of good health according to my mother, who flies back and forth between DC and nagoya in the final months of her 30-year employment at the world bank. my mom bikes back and forth from the hospital to the little wooden row-house (長屋) that survived air-raids during WWII, virtually untouched since that time. back and forth in and out up and down how to break free of this incessant cycle of death and rebirth? only through struggle...

Dear friends, Just wanted to share some personal reflections on the Nov 3 mayoral election.... Bloomberg thought he was going to win by a landlslide, but he squeaked by with the white and high-income vote. But the working people of Lower East Side and the Chinatowns throughout NYC were out on the streets tirelessly in the months and days leading up to this rigged election, up against $$$tens of millions worth of ads, robocalls, mailings and propaganda, speaking truth to power; and residents, small business owners, other workers heard. See results from press below! Total: 1,100,649 votes (very low turnout, lowest in modern NYC history) Bloomberg only won by 50,342 votes, lost BX and BK by wide margins. Bloomberg’s votes mostly came from rich white voters: According to NYT: •Sunset Park voted to DUMP Bloomberg: 4645 for Thompson, 4497 for Bloomberg (we were out at the polls all day talking to folks in the neighborhood) •Harlem, Jamaica (QNS), Washington Hts all voted to dump Bloomberg ...

i recently learned that one of my colleagues, XK, was a farmer in F__ province in China, quit after elementary school was a favorite with his boss and hates to read. he has one of the most assertive and clear speech of anyone i've met, and he has also helped to clear the air of a lot of bad energy with his presence. i'm going to try being more like him, more 前向き and more daring in the coming months...

it’s been a really long time… i might have to change to a different blog, especially since i haven’t updated this one in such a long time that it really has no following. good reason… but SF says that you don’t have to cut everything out to move forward. of course, I think that that has got some truth to it, but the way I’ve been living is to try to clear some space for new growth. i’m scared to death of being trapped in rooms that lock from the outside. i forgot to tell you this morning but i do like that 3rd spirit, FB – after the Russian Revolutionary Sweep and the American Efficiency: the New York Enterprise & Creativity.

i read what you write and i have nothing to say. the problem is also, i have nothing to ask. i have become a stone. the only thing i can do is cut and paste. cut and paste. cut and paste.

it's been a month of celebration and hopefully some transformation. i just updated a blog that hasn't been touched since may of 2008, which reminded me of other blogs... many things to think about, many questions to ask, many problems to solve. my fortune for the year is a shining sword. i just got off the phone with my father, who tells me that my life will be difficult. also that one needs not just success but the will to do things. do i have the will to change?