Silence is golden

Silence is golden - Post by tallamerican

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:43:07 +0800

I have lived in many chinese cities over the past 2 years. I am now a full-time resident of Kunming living close to the NE wal-mart on Beijing Lu. I have lived in one of the safest cities in the usa most of my life but i still have always felt safer here. I am a guest in this country so i keep my mouth shut, and have found that a smile is almost always received by a warm return smile. Regarding hatred in the USA we have street gangs, road rage, hate groups all over the place, the Klu Klux Klan, Traveling in canada many years ago i remember a great deal of hatred between the French Canadians and the rest of canada, and the UK had the IRA. Let us remember that with the Olympics in the UK this year the security was at an all time high. My deceased uncles who fought the japanese in the south pacific and had comrades spend part of war in japanese prison camps could never forgive the japanese. Please let us all be careful with the opinions we express so we can continue to live in this wonderful country.

Silence is golden - Post by Chingis

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:51:23 +0800

Don't be such a poltroon dude!

Silence is golden - Post by Liumingke1234

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:13:43 +0800

Ha。。Ha.. I agree. Lighten up! Ha..ha. ( I can hear the Chinese national anthem in the background).

Silence is golden - Post by tallamerican

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:23:54 +0800

Just think this is a good place to live and was nicely trying to tell assholes to shut up. There is a place and time to express opinions but this is not one of those times. I have a wonderful wife here and i do not want to have to leave her behind. If anyone has a problem with me feeling this way go screw yourself.

Silence is golden - Post by Chingis

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:28:33 +0800

You need to calm down man. Possibly too much pent up aggression borne out of a fear of expressing yourself regularly...

Enjoy your time in…

Silence is golden - Post by Ian_Kunming

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:30:36 +0800

"I keep my mouth shut." Exactly the wrong thing to do.

Silence is golden - Post by angelcrazy2

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:41:50 +0800

hmmm..I know gold is silent.

Silence is golden - Post by tallamerican

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:52:49 +0800

the point i was trying to make is what good can come from us attaching our chinese hosts right now. Many already think us americans are arrogant and pushy, and i just feel it is a good time to be careful what we say until this situation cools down a little. Maybe i have been lucky to have been treated so well here, but i am hopeful that does not change.

Silence is golden - Post by laotou

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:54:07 +0800

@tallamerican Respect your sentiment - I'm pretty much the same way - but for different reasons - never try to reason with a stone - the rock doesn't care and you generally look insane for trying to hold a conversation with a rock. On another note - one of the benefits of expats from foreign countries is the exchange of cultures, which includes your/our opinions. Please don't blend like furniture - just be yourself and hopefully encourage people to see that peoples of other nations are reasonable, civilized, compassionate, have other ideas and thoughts, and learn from each other. Most Americans have absolutely no clue why everyone else in the world don't particularly like US Government politics, which overflows towards opinions about Americans in general - which isn't particularly true or fair and in the case of the recent islamic incident - actually moronic and imbecilic in response - if not utterly UN-Islamic. Advocating the murder of innocents based on the alleged crimes of others is utterly heretical - yet I hear not a single voice of PUBLICIZED reason from the Islamic clergy and THAT is irresponsible AND heretical also. Same with the Japanese issue - most Japanese living and working here are painfully aware of their government's historical atrocities in China and are generally surprised this information has been systematically and methodically suppressed in Japan. Americans didn't know our government tried to genocide American Indians. We've forgotten we trained today's Islamic terrorists. We've forgotten or have chosen to forget we helped maintain a despotic dictatorship in Iran for decades and choose to fall back on irresponsible and ignorant rhetoric - although their leader is a bit of a loon. We've forgotten that we funneled billions of tax dollars which helped maintain the Marcos regime of corruption and oppression in the Philippines for decades, so we could maintain military bases in Asia. We (the USA) recognize China as THE one China and Taiwan is part of China's sovereignty - yet we continue to sell weapons to Taiwan to maintain the separation. That is a policy that is decades old and rife with hypocrisy. How can any nation in the world respect our foreign policies, when we exhibit such behavior..although it's a great economic deal for American defense contractors. We sell Taiwan arms BILLIONS of USD in arms, but "store" them in Guam. Those Taiwan arms trade deals reek of corruption. Speak out - learn, exchange, encourage. Otherwise we'll never understand each other - and that's not a good thing - it leads to irrational fear of the unknown, which leads to mob-like hostility. @Chingis learned a new word - NEVER heard that before - had to actually look it up - thanks..sort of. Is that a legitimate scrabble word? On another note, I thought personal attacks were supposed to be banned from the blogs (honor system, followed by potential formal moderator intervention). If I remember American culture correctly, them's fightin' words...(assuming we were back in say...junior high or elementary school)...

Silence is golden - Post by AlPage48

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:15:18 +0800

When I read the thread title "Silence is Golden" along with the OPs opening remark about living near the NE Walmart, I thought it might have something to do with the constant blaring of car / bus / truck horns. I could really go for some silence right now.