On April 9th, 7,000 Anti-China protestors protested as the Olympic torch was being passed by. I was shocked to see the protest on the news. As a matter of fact, I was a little bit angry about this protest.
As a Chinese immigrant, I love Chinese people and I love Americans. I am proud of being Chinese. I deeply adore my culture and my people. The Chinese government has been struggling with issues in Tibet since the 1940s. Tibet, a part of China that is mainly isolated from the rest of the mainland, is fighting for its independency. It all comes down to the freedom of religion. The fact is, most Chinese people don’t have a religion. The Chinese government has allowed Tibet the freedom to worship its religion and most Chinese people think it is the right thing to do. Give Tibet its freedom of religion. We did. Apparently, it is not enough. Monks from Tibet are using the media attention to get the world to intervene in their issues. It created so much terrible publicity for China’s Olympic event. Freedom of religion doesn’t equal to claiming its independency.
Another aspect of the San Francisco protest that bothers me is that the people who are Anti-China, are mostly Chinese. A lot of those Chinese people were born and raised here in the United States. They have never been to China before. They learned about the Chinese government from their parents or grandparents, who left China decades ago. Things have changed so much. China is not like it was 50 years ago. I would tell those Anti-China Chinese people to go visit China and see it for their own eyes.
Now, the President has decided not to go to the Beijing Olympic Ceremony’s opening. What a bad move. The entire world is watching. China and America need to stay friends.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080410/ts_alt_afp/chinaunresttibetrightsoly2008bono_080410000129
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2003/03/20/protesters.DTL
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Take actions to get off oil dependency
Oil prices have hit another record high today. Today, gas it is about $3.40/gallon. It is out of control. We need to start improving our dependency issues immediately. I wonder what the government is waiting for.
EX mobile, Shell and BP have spent millions of dollars in lobbying. They are not interested in investing new technology to get liquid fuel. With the large amount of oil reserves available, oil companies are happier than ever. I did some research on it, and I found out that oil scarcity is not the problem. The problem is we can not produce oil fast enough. The oil plants are already at 100% capacity. Oil plants can charge whatever price they want because they know people in the States will pay for it.
Why not use coal to get oil? Nazis Germany invented in this technology in the 1920s to get liquid fuel from coal. The process is very simple: put coal through gasification to get carbon and hydrogen. With carbon and hydrogen, we can make any liquid fuel we want. Why not start doing it. The United States has the largest oil reserves in the world. We have enough oil reserves to last the nation 250 years. Montana was able to produce liquid fuel from it back in 2005. The oil made from coal will have a cheaper price.
Some people argue that coal-derived-liquid fuel will produce more carbon dioxide than other energy. It is true. However, that amount of carbon dioxide is not enough for us to worry about. For now, since we don’t have any other solutions available, we should use coal for a short-run. Perhaps the reason this is not being done is because of the lobbying money the government receives from oil companies. We need to our government to take actions on behalf of its citizens needs.
http://www.energybulletin.net/1253.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/20/60minutes/main1225184.shtml
EX mobile, Shell and BP have spent millions of dollars in lobbying. They are not interested in investing new technology to get liquid fuel. With the large amount of oil reserves available, oil companies are happier than ever. I did some research on it, and I found out that oil scarcity is not the problem. The problem is we can not produce oil fast enough. The oil plants are already at 100% capacity. Oil plants can charge whatever price they want because they know people in the States will pay for it.
Why not use coal to get oil? Nazis Germany invented in this technology in the 1920s to get liquid fuel from coal. The process is very simple: put coal through gasification to get carbon and hydrogen. With carbon and hydrogen, we can make any liquid fuel we want. Why not start doing it. The United States has the largest oil reserves in the world. We have enough oil reserves to last the nation 250 years. Montana was able to produce liquid fuel from it back in 2005. The oil made from coal will have a cheaper price.
Some people argue that coal-derived-liquid fuel will produce more carbon dioxide than other energy. It is true. However, that amount of carbon dioxide is not enough for us to worry about. For now, since we don’t have any other solutions available, we should use coal for a short-run. Perhaps the reason this is not being done is because of the lobbying money the government receives from oil companies. We need to our government to take actions on behalf of its citizens needs.
http://www.energybulletin.net/1253.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/20/60minutes/main1225184.shtml
Comments on Jason’s “Doles Food”
I read Jason’s article today. I am surprised to hear that Dole Foods is in a bad financial situation. Doles Foods is selling its land in Hawaii to pay off its debts.
First of all, I don’t exactly know what was DF’s problem. It could be the management team, market strategy, or other operating issues. What are some opportunities that DF is facing? Just like the Delta Beverage case we did in class, DF is facing the future of being bought out and shut down. If DF decides to announce its bankruptcy, DF will shut down its production lines and no cash flow will be generated at all. However, if DF can be bought out, it might be able to pay off its debts and survive through this. Another issue that I have noticed is that DF owns land in Hawaii, which is outside the United States. Shipping costs is a big part of DF’s debts. In order to lower its cost, DF can sell its land in Hawaii and purchase land nearby in the United States.
First of all, I don’t exactly know what was DF’s problem. It could be the management team, market strategy, or other operating issues. What are some opportunities that DF is facing? Just like the Delta Beverage case we did in class, DF is facing the future of being bought out and shut down. If DF decides to announce its bankruptcy, DF will shut down its production lines and no cash flow will be generated at all. However, if DF can be bought out, it might be able to pay off its debts and survive through this. Another issue that I have noticed is that DF owns land in Hawaii, which is outside the United States. Shipping costs is a big part of DF’s debts. In order to lower its cost, DF can sell its land in Hawaii and purchase land nearby in the United States.
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