Elliott Ng

The continued polarization between Western popular opinion and Chinese popular opinion continues. I read Chinese Internet Users Say Enough to International Bullying which talked about the (L) China viral movement. The TechCrunch commmenters, especially the anti-(L) China commenters, were so offensive that I got baited into writing a 450+ word comment on TC. What a waste of my time — I’m not going to change any minds over there. Anyway, I’ll just post it at the bottom here for recordkeeping.

Christine Lu launched her Harmonious Fries award to celebrate people trying to bring people together rather than split them apart. Here’s mine!

Thanks Christine! Follow @christinelu at Twitter!

Here’s my TechCrunch comment:

It amazes me to see TechCrunch haters on virtually every topic here on TechCrunch. I feel blessed to live in the USA where freedom of speech and freedom of the press allows us to express virtually any point of view without serious concern about my personal liberties being curtailed by the state. I (L) USA!

At the same time, it disturbs me that the anti (L) China commenters are so much more judgmental and one-sided than the pro (L) China commenters. Look, I am not fluent in Chinese and can’t read Chinese media or BBS. BUT there seems to be ABSOLUTELY NO EFFORT MADE by most Western audiences to even UNDERSTAND the point of view of the Chinese people who feel Westerners are getting only 1 side of the story.

The amount of global awareness by educated Chinese people is on par with that of other educated people in most countries. It is the developed 1st world, and America in particular, where people have completely taken their freedoms for granted and not sought to engage in dialogue with others, and just take their own preconceived notions and allow events and news to just reinforce whatever they were already thinking.

On balance the pro (L) China commenters seems A LOT more reasonable and cosmopolitan than the anti (L) China commenters, at least on this thread. Doesn’t that surprise you? Aren’t “we” the ones who are free and “they” the ones who are brainwashed and held down by a repressive government?

Look — if “they” can climb over the Great Firewall via proxy servers (which btw is a total pain in the *ss) to see the outside world, maybe “we” can read Global Voices Online or Rolang Soong’s fabulous translations on EastSouthWestNorth blog (www.zonaeuropa.com) to climb in. Visit. Listen. Keep an open mind. Try to understand. Have a dialogue. Then try to convince. That is far superior than staying in our own little world with our own preconceived notions.

America may only have another 20+ years as de-facto world leader to steer the rules in place before we turn over leadership to a more complex multipolar group which will undoubtedly include China, India, EU, and Japan. Let’s regain our moral authority by reengaging the world with more humility and open-mindedness and only then will we get to create the world we want before we have to turn it over. The close-minded comments of the TC haters on this board convince me that we are still “same bed, different dreams” with the Chinese, and most other peoples in this world for that matter.

Saw @Kirsteno tweet about TweetCloud so I thought I’d try it. Here’s my TweetCloud as of 4/11! Warning: it takes about 0.04 secs per tweet to process, and mine took 135 seconds. So a massive tweeter like @davidfeng or @christinelu will have to wait a much longer time.

Here’s the first version with all the @ replies included:

Not surprisingly, the top words (including below the fold) are:

1. Twitter
2. @davidfeng
3. @chrsitinelu
4. post
5. nice

Here the version without the @ replies:

The top 5 words are, uninterestingly:

1. Twitter
2. Great
3. Nice
4. Post
5. China

There you have it. My Twitter zeitgeist.

Is Scobleizer a Cylon?

I’ve always wished I had the same massive information processing gene as Robert Scoble and wondered if there was some upper limit. In fact, I even considered the possibility of the Scobleizer being a Cylon, because of his incredible ability to consume, synthesize, and publish information.

Probably not. Even Scoble has limits…20,000 Followed in Twitter.

Well it sounds like today is the day that the upper limit has been reached. @Scobleizer just Tweeted:

So the upper limit with his information processsing abilities is 20,000 followed. I am at about 200 followed and it is already generated “continuous partial attention.” So far I have loved Twitter and it has expanded my peripheral vision tremendously.

So its nice to know that Scobleizer is not a Cylon and has some upper limit on information processing.

UPDATE: Robert Seidman (@seidman) had almost the exact same idea only a day or two later. Read his take here. This seems weird. Maybe it is not @scobleizer who is the Cylon but…wait, what’s that song that I keep hearing?

CYLON WATCH ON TWITTER:

• @elliottng - Elliott Ng - CN Reviews and UpTake Blog
• @seidman - Robert Seidman - TV by the Numbers
• @scobleizer - Either NOT a Cylon or this 20,000 limit is a headfake

Maobacks vs. Greenbacks

I have been investigating the obvious trend of RMB appreciation (or some would accurately point out, relative RMB appreciation to the declining dollar) and what to do about it.  I wrote about using CNY ETNs to hedge RMB appreciation and later shared more links on this subject.

I’m currently in process on setting up an Everbank account that is based on non-deliverable forward contracts.  Its a complicated and obscure thing to do for a retail investor so even though large, sophisticated players may have ways to hedge RMB-USD exchange rate, the little guy like me has only a few options.  More on this at my China group blog, CN Reviews.