World of Pageantry

Hallelujah, the great emancipator has freed us from the slavery of testing. He said in his speech last night that he was going to cut all wasteful spending in education. No more testing!!!!! Go Obama!!!

Or maybe wasteful spending is all those things that can't be tested.....

Yeah.....define "wasteful spending"

Same as every other speach given by politicians. Tell the people what they "need to hear" in order to calm them down, while maintaining and increasing their power and influence.

More Legislation= more government power

More government power= more control over citizens

More control over citizens= less individual freedom

Regardless of "intentions" one must keep in mind that the main idea behind a free society is the "power" of government residing in the citizenry. When citizens are dependent upon a specific group of politicians, and their policies, for their well-being their own self-interest becomes intertwined with keeping said politicians in office regardless of any other circumstances.

Plesae keep in mind that they work for us, not the other way around.

[sarcasm tone turned on]The new stimulus bill just passed has around 4,000 earmarks in it. HEY! Give the politicians credit. They cut that down from the 8,500+ earmarks they had in it before they drastically reduced it to a tiny 4,000.

Not to get political, but most Filipinos don't see Barack Obama as an American. They see him as a Black American. All Americans to many (if not most) Asians are white. Otherwise, you have to qualify them with a color or ethnic origin.

Even as a white skinned citizen of the United States, as a foreigner in the Philippines, this upsets me that all white people are American and all Americans are white to the Filipino.

I would love to see Barack Obama go to Manila to make a public appearance and just say four words...

"I am an American..."

...then leave.

that sounds about right... leftovers from white American imperialism. back when the US was involved over there it was pre-civil rights, they left behind a country that only knew white america

And as of today, I sadly stand corrected as our students were subjected to the CAHSEE test (otherwise known as the "are you as smart as a 5th grader" test). I just knew it was too good to be true.

IsnipeWithAknife wrote:that sounds about right... leftovers from white American imperialism. back when the US was involved over there it was pre-civil rights, they left behind a country that only knew white america

I resent any inference to White Imperialism. The problem is that the Filipinos now see white as being right. Skin bleach is very popular.

You can help me since you're Filipino. Quit referring to white people as being American. Just call us white. As US citizens, we're all Americans. You need to help get that word around.

And stop think of us as imperialists. It only makes it worse!

skin bleach and whitening soap is very popular there just like how some Japanese women bleach their hair blond to look like a california valley girl or something. I don't quite understand why they popularize being white and view other races as less American but I think it is leftovers when the US was (past tense) imperialistic like a culture footprint.

I used the term white imperialism as in a pre-civil rights world where minorities were repressed and the US and other European nations went around the world waging wars and colonizing places. It would make sense that they would leave behind (culturally white) footprints. The military wasn't integrated yet, the people in government were all white males, minorities weren't viewed as equals yet, there were still Jim crow laws, etc etc. I didn't mean for the term to be offensive but its just what happened in history. Not to mention only 1 Racially segregated unit fought in WWII in the pacific theater and it was an Army Air Corps unit. Its not my fault the American/European impact in that area was a white one.

The term imperialist is VERY offensive when you are an American living overseas. Maybe you remember the Cold War. I am a Cold War veteran, having been stationed in West Berlin 1979-82. The Soviets and other Warsaw Bloc affiliates kept using the imperialist label back and forth at each other.

The skin bleach thing: Dark skin means you work outside in the sun. It's the brand of a poor people. White skin means you work in an office all day and earn lots of money.

I work in an office all day and I don't earn lots of money.

LoyalTubist wrote:The term imperialist is VERY offensive when you are an American living overseas. Maybe you remember the Cold War. I am a Cold War veteran, having been stationed in West Berlin 1979-82. The Soviets and other Warsaw Bloc affiliates kept using the imperialist label back and forth at each other.

I was referring to 19th century imperialism back when there were "empires". Sorry it is offensive but it is history. I don't think the US is imperialist now but the US and other nations were in the past.

I am a historian but I live in the 21st century. If you go around in world travels calling people imperialists, watch out for your head!

I'm serious!

LoyalTubist wrote:The skin bleach thing: Dark skin means you work outside in the sun. It's the brand of a poor people. White skin means you work in an office all day and earn lots of money.

Don't you mean to say that they believe that the Dark skin represents a hard laborer, versus whiter skin means wealthier higher status?

What I was also taught while living in the Philippines and returning ever too frequently to check up on family and health, was that Dark skin represents heavy sin and light skin is purity, (religiously speaking) this concept was brought in with the Religious Missionaries back in the day of Magellan and probably before that and it has evolved into the culture in such a way that majority of the population strongly hang on to it.

I do have several Asian friends that use the papaya whiteners as a beauty aid to remove freckles and sunspots. Just the same way people like to use concealers to hide birthmarks and under-eye circles the only difference is one will give you a bit more of a permanent effect while the easily comes off with the proper skin care. I had to learn this info for a part time job while i was out there working.