Anxiety
Last night at like one a.m. I was struck by all this anxiety. I started worrying about money, and what to do with it. Now that I’ve saved some money, should I send it to my bank account in the US, or will the US economy go downhill because of the hurricane, forcing the dollar to fall in value? Should I invest in a foreign currency? I was thinking of the Euro before, but now it sounds like a risky bet. It’s had some setback too. Jessica suggested the British Pound. Is is really still strong, after the advent of the Euro? She said it’s pretty stable. Then again, Curtis suggested that in the future, the RMB may be the currency to have. But what will happen with the deregulating of the banking industry, the Three Gorges project (and its success or failure), and the fact that there’s nothing like the FDIC insuring deposits in China? I’m thinking I should talk to some British Council people on Monday on their thoughts about the pound vs. the Euro.
I’ve also been upset and freaked out about the New Orleans situation, especially the looting and things like attacking hospitals. Why are people so bad? I’d like to have people around I can talk this out with.
It’s all astonishing, the incompetence of the government and everything. Surely this event was foreseeable. In Taiwan and the Mainland, 250,000 people were evacuated by the government before hurricane Talim stuck. Was there any sort of public evacuation effort in Louisiana?
The weather is freaking me out too. We just had a typhoon here (Matsa) about two weeks ago, and we’re already having another one (Talim). It seems that the weather is going crazy. I remember B and XY went through another hurricane or big storm right before this one too. Here in China, our region’s “peach rains” went missing, which will have a big affect on agriculture, it snowed in Nanjing like a month ago, when it is usually like 40 Celsius, this winter Shanghai had its first snows in nearly ten years, and the last fall I was in Shenzhen, the whole three-week rainy season went missing.
It seems like things are deteriorating.
I keep thinking, as I have for a few years now, that America is in a downward trend. I think is about 15 years, the country will realize, with a state of shock, how bad things have gotten. It seems like there is no “national aim” or “national ambition” that everyone is working toward. At least China, with all the problems it has, is aiming to build up, modernize the country, and improve people’s living standard. The US doesn’t have any sort of “mission statement” right now. It’s like corporate profits and heterosexuality are the highest values to pursue in America. Even European countries, or Canada, could state their country has a mission, with regard to the welfare and living standards of people living within their borders, but I don’t think the US could say that at all. The US doesn’t take good care of kids, people don’t value education, a lot of people seem to be oppressing themselves through the use of drugs and alcohol (even if all discrimination would disappear, that wouldn’t help someone who is addicted to drugs). The US seems wrapped up in this weird, punitive, religious-fundamentalist mindset I don’t understand … I think the US is going down, and in the future, will cease to be a desirable place to live.