Recent News (Bad and Good)
Posted by Stuart at 03:29 PM on October 08, 2003Wow. I was on quite a little roll with the weblog posts for a while when all of a sudden it went quiet. And what revives it? Just hearing the words "Governor Schwarzenegger".
I'm speechless. I have been following the California recall race closely for the past few weeks and I still have no idea what Governor Schwarzenegger stands for. Does anyone? Does any one have any earthly idea what he is going to do as Governor? Or how he expects to take charge of an economy that is bigger than the economy of many of the world's countries?
I am shocked and depressed because I just don't understand it. Perhaps leaving California wasn't such a bad idea afterall...
And then I think about what I planned on writing before I heard the election results. Looking at it from the other side, perhaps it is good that I took a break from Cali since things are going so well here. Piyawat and I have been doing a lot of reading to prepare for our upcoming trip to southern Thailand. (We leave on Saturday. Yippee!) From what I can tell, the beaches we will be visiting are some of the best in Thailand (and that is saying alot!) and the small towns and provinces are a very unique part of the country. We are both very exicited about it.
Exciting news story #2: I was talking with a computer science professor from the Thai program at my school and he suggested we write a book to use in the "Computers and Information Technology" class I have been teaching. Apparently my school has a publishing company and many teachers write their own books to use in their classrooms. In fact, so many do, that it's almost a requirement in order to get a promotion here. I've been looking for a chance to work on my writing, so here it is!
Exciting news story #3: I was just hired to teach some courses for an American on-line university. I think it will be a great opportunity for me to get experience teaching in a "distance-learning" environment. Not to mention having a little part-time job will certainly help out with the finances. A big thanks to Mark for helping me get this job!
So, one strange, confusing, mildly disheartening piece of news and three really great pieces of news. I guess that's not too bad of a ratio...
I kept fairly abreast of the developments in California, so I was not so shocked Schwrzenegger won. He seemed to never lose momentum, regardless of the facts. I do wonder if this recall election is going to set a precedent that other states will follow, and I wonder if this election is a valid indicator that the citizenry is fed up with "traditional" politicians.
Although I haven't lived in California since the age of 8, I look at what is going on there from a couple of thousand miles away and just shake my head.
I see a number of things going on. The present govenor who was only re-elected 11 months ago, has in my opinion been unfairly blamed for the energy crisis and the severe economic fallout which turned out to have been manufactured by Enron and others from the state of Texas. I don't think the present govenor had done anything that remotely warranted a recall. The recall was a power grab by the opposition which doesn't seem to beleive in democratic processes.
The spector of Schwarzenegger being elected just amazes me. People are so star struck that instead of utilizing a deliberative and mature process to assess a person's qualifications, they see the fantasy machismo that Schwarzenegger's characters display and elect him. As far as I can see, he won't have the foggiest idea of what it takes to run the Worlds 5th largest economy. But, I'm sure he will take on operatives that will call the shots from behind the throne.
If they do to California what is being done to the American economy then it will be truly tragic.
But as I say, "you get the government you deserve"...
Good luck with the book publishing. Sounds fun.