Howdy y'all from deep within the People's Republic of China... I was really depressed to find that my blog was blocked by their internet guru's here. So I figured I'd do the one thing better than complaining a lot about it upon my return to Doha, and that's to find a proxy that would allow me to access this website past the censor... Now, I'm not sure what it takes to find someone using a proxy, but if you don't hear from me after this post... It's probably because the PLA busted down my door and took me away, or that I didn't get past immigration or something else exciting like that. :D But what it means is that I can't keep y'all updated with picture and movies etc. and I'm dreadfully sorry about that, I'm kinda bummed... (Correction, so I MAY include pictures, I just chose to post this upon my return to Qatar, from this point onwards, I do so. I chose to include the beginning because of the excitement I felt towards fighting communism by breaking it's laws... Just like any Democracy loving, freedom spreading American should...) My family and I had a truly awesome time in Shanghai, it was pretty ridiculous. My brother and I were on a quest for some awesome random cheap Chinese products...
2 Yuan = Around 33 cents... JACKPOT!!!
And awesome Engrish (Attempts at writing English that fail epically for those of you not familiar with the term...) signs my brother discovered can be found around China on an earlier trip to there...
Oh yea... Gotta love that Glass Wall Stimulation!!!
Only the "carefullness" bump their heads here...
And all and all, I believe our search was very successful. Not to mention our last stop while we were there, their "TV Tower" which is Shanghai's equivalent of an Eiffel Tower, or such buildings... (I'll post a link to the online album where I'll post all of my pictures... A picture of the tower and of our adventures within can be found there...) was probably the best stop the entire trip, as it was packed with history, a good view, and adrenaline packed glass floors that stimulated floating at 260m above the ground. A fine trip indeed. It was also just fun to be back in Asia, where the subways and malls were as packed as I remembered them being, and where having someone stand less than a foot from your backside in a line isn't considered near as awkward as it is elsewhere. The city itself was pretty neat! I'm not gonna lie, I was kinda worried that there was going to be a bit of tension there due to politics w/ the U.S. and all that, but I came to find that there was nothing of the such, and if anything, the people there were always genuinely happy to see you there!! It was a bit smoggy like I've heard Chinese cities tend to be, but I found that just made the pictures of Shanghai from up in the tower that much more neat. I'd like to see them clean it up a bit, but hey, that'll come sooner or later inshallah... I was also amazed to see how westernized the city was... With the exception of the random Red Army soldier, it was pretty free from most of the "Communist" aspects of life, a major plus in my book!!! Coming from me the history nerd, it would be important to mention that the city was sorta light on the whole history aspect. But I found that is probably because they're truly busy looking forward, to becoming a world powerhouse of a town... They seem to be heading that way anyways!! It was interesting to note the history museum we visited completely skipped from the early 1900's to modern day... right past the communist revolt etc. On a whole, I'd recommend Shanghai to any world travelers, and as my dad put it, if Beijing is the capitol of Communist China, Shanghai is the capitol of the future China. Anyways, the trip ended with a 10 hour flight (of which I slept through 9 1/2 hours of it... Whoop!!) back here to Doha where I sit writing the rest of this article. I'm excited to be back and to spend the last of my time overseas for a bit, but I'll miss Shanghai, it truly was something else...
Anyways, it has been a little while since I've posted any political comments, and I figured with what has been happening back in the States... Especially the "terrorist incident" in Detroit that thank God ended the way it did... I'd express some of my views upon the security issue that has sprouted out of it!!! Here goes...
There has been talk, especially with the baddies finding more interesting ways of hiding the explosives on their body, of full-body scanners being installed in airports. This has revitalized the whole security vs. privacy fight that has been going on in America since 9/11. I dunno, it seems as the years have gone by, I have grown more and more disappointed with Americans on a whole. People seem so eager to forget we are in a war. People can all day long, remark about how we aren't, how neither of the conflicts we are in right now can be considered a war, etc. etc. But what they fail to realize is that with the exception of all of our early wars and the Civil War, this is a conflict that has, and unfortunately will probably be "fought" on home soil. The two biggest wars ever, World War I and II were fought 99.9% off of American soil and yet people on the "homefront" still made sacrifices for those overseas.
Rationing during World War II, an example of a populace making sacrifices for a cause...
And here we are, it's year two thousand and something, and Americans can't make sacrifices for a conflict against terrorism that has the potential to strike here, WITHIN the States. It just pains me that people can grow so soft in the face of such danger. What do they think we should do? I'm all for having full body scans, having my phone tapped, and I'm even all for having a flippin' camera on every street corner, if the government agrees that each of these resources are used ONLY for security purposes and will not be leaked out to the public for any reason. Now ladies and gents, I totally understand many of you are not in agreement with the cameras everywhere, and I'll give you that. Maybe the last three years of my life, living in such close proximity to my buddies in a military environment has completely destroyed any sense of privacy I've had.... But here's how I view it... If you're not doing anything wrong and have nothing to hide, and nobody is gonna be stalking you using these security techniques, then why the heck are you worried about it?? The closest analogy I can think of is something that has happened this past semester in College Station. We had red-light cameras that caught people running reds in intersections. It "bothered" a lot of people, so the city put it to a vote. I'm not even sure what their viewpoint on why they should be taken down, and that's a definite fault of mine, and makes my argument weaker, but c'mon... The vote came in, and of COURSE since CS is a college town, they were voted down, and now, congratulations, we can all run red lights. The real antidote to your getting tickets from a red-light camera should have been, surprise surprise, not running red lights... *now for the collective gasp from the audience...*
Oh wait.... No it's not...
The question I have I guess, is why, if you have nothing bad to hide from the security "people", would you be against all this extra safety being put in place?? It's not about the individual who feels uncomfortable, we should all be looking out for each other... And unfortunately, that's just something I'm afraid many modern Americans fail and refuse to do these days... *sigh* But please, my knowledge on the other side of the subject is extremely weak, and I encourage y'all to comment on this... I'm doing this for my own personal knowledge just as much as I'm doing it to speak my mind!! :D
Lastly, I have a few of New Years resolutions from when I was trying to post this on New Years Day that I'd like to share with y'all... I'm just copy and pasting this over...
It is New Years Day for another two and a half hours, and that means I gotta cover some New Year's Resolutions, that is if I can get this thing done in that time... Procrastination is a biznatch (I did... By about 10 minutes) Anyways I've been thinking about these resolutions a bit during my downtime here in China, and I'm not gonna make 20+ resolutions to work on because then they just don't mean anything to me... I've never been big on these either, but this year, I figure I'm gonna make 5 solid ones, and REAAAALLLY focus on them, I figure if I make this an annual thing, 5 x hopefully at least 50-60 more good years here on Earth will be 250 - 300 solid improvements upon myself... Not too shabby... :D Anyways... Enough explanation, lets do this...
Number 1: Continue finding my spiritual self....
This past semester has been insane.... Insane!!! when it came to finding myself spiritually. Whether it was through my buddies (especially my buddies... Y'all have no idea what you've done for me...), Breakaway, or my church, it had been a good year, and the best part is, it really has helped me clean up my act... I look forward to another year of developing this...
Number 2: Become more... Aggressive
Now before y'all go and tell me this is an interesting one, hear me out. I'm reading this book called "Wild at Heart"by John Eldredge. At one point of the book he mentions that so many men now-a-days in the church (and I truly believe this is true in general too) are becoming complacent. They don't truly go after what they want and usually fall prey to doing what is socially acceptable and taking the "safe" choice. I've always been very cautious in making decisions, which is a plus in most cases I'd like to think, it has kept me from taking chances in areas of my life I really should be more... Aggressive in... This is actually something I'm excited about doing this year...
Number 3: Work my butt off at school
This past semester has been great scholastically... I got good grades, got an A in Arabic (much MUCH to my surprise) and rocked on paper. Behind the scenes I feel I let my scholastics slide, procrastinating a lot, and putting less important aspects of my life in front of this. So I'm laying it out right now... Not procrastinating that much this semester, I plan on getting my buddies to help me out with this one... Inshallah it'll change things... :D And this also goes towards working out too... Since I like to believe the Corps is a part of my College experience, I need to make sure to work out regularly, especially if the military is in my future...
Number 4: Really work hard at getting something going this summer
We'll see what happens with the Army. If that fails, who knows, I may go for the Marines. I'm really confused about this and it'll definitely be something I'll work hard at working out over this next year. But lets say both of those fall through, I need to have a back-up plan... I'm thinking something down the lines of an internship, or a travel abroad. Maybe even just staying in school for summer classes. Recently I've even thought of maybe doing some missionary work. It would get me back overseas, and to some pretttty interesting areas of the world. We'll see how this plays out over this next semester... I would really hate just sitting around another summer....
Number 5: Lighten up, and have fun this semester
Bar when I really need to buckle down for classes and the Corps, I think I'm gonna go out more this year, plan some fun stuff for my outfit, and get out more with the buddies for a good time... Delegate some responsibility, and don't feel like I myself need to get everything done... Free up some time.. All that sorta good stuff. Maybe Fall semester of my senior year, take some classes that don't necessarily fall into my career plan, but I find interesting.. You know, something that has to do with horses so I know what to do when I own that ranch 35-40 years down range... :D It IS college after all...
Now, I'm not sure how many people actually read this... But if you do, help me keep accountable for what I've written here... I'll be eternally grateful. :D
Until next time, thanks again for reading. I'll probably get a few more posts in before school starts up again, but I hope y'all have had a great break like I have... It's been insane thus far...
P.S. Pictures from my entire Christmas Break will be posted here... Feel free to take a look!!!
http://picasaweb.google.com/NSpencer2011
Love y'all,
Neal Spencer
العبور الآمن
2 comments:
"He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither." -Ben Franklin
I'm going to have to disagree with at least PART of your security ideas. I have nothing to hide, but a cavity search and a strip search or full body scan is too much. Its invasive and insulting, especially because I'm profiled from the second I step into an airport. Lol.
The issue is that we as Americans are attacking the result instead of attacking the source. Terrorism is not going to stop because of full body scanners. There is no such thing as fool proof security, there will always be a way to get something in. What we need to do as a nation is attack the source of the problem (and that doesn't mean bomb Yemen). We need to find the source and cut it out. Anyone who's weeded known that unless you pull it out by its roots, the weed will be back in a matter of weeks.
I for one have nothing to hide, but cannot stand for an invasion of my privacy and my body.
P.S. A note on the red light cameras: In Florida it is unconstitutional (state) to give out traffic violations using cameras. Cities changed running lights to a city ordinance and not a traffic violation, hence bypassing the constitution. I think that's what has most people inflamed. I'm all for red light cameras, but I think people get irked because it moves us closer and closer to a police state, or one ruled by "suits in the smoke filled back rooms."
Peace. Nice to see you had fun in China.
"Number 5: Lighten up, and have fun this semester
Bar..."
I got really excited for a second. I thought maybe you'd ingest more than two beer in one sitting, and was sadly disappointed.
Naw just kidding broski. This is a great idea. I'm thinking about maybe making my twitter account my scratch book to make my weekly (or so) bloggity blog blog to rival yours.
It'll keep me writing and thinking about things in the world, but also keep me true to my own beliefs by having them on paper... or ... web paper.
But anyway you stupid prawn. Shanghai was fun.
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