Paz Sin Fronteras (Peace Without Borders)

A free “Paz Sin Fronteras” (Peace Without Borders) concert was held in Havana’s la Plaza de la Revolución José Martí (Jose Marti Revolution Plaza) last Sunday, Sept 20 in Cuba. The concert was organized and led by Juanes (Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez), a Columbia-born Latin pop superstar and social activist, a 17-time Latin Grammy winner. More than 1 million people attended the concert by some estimates. Keeping in mind that the total population of Cuba is 11+ millions people and Havana has about 2 million residents, children and seniors included. Here is a Youtube video of the first 10 minutes of the concert.




According to Wikipedia, Plaza de la Revolucion is one of the largest city plazas in the world with an area of 4.6 square miles that is about 10 times the size of the National Mall in Washington D.C. and 1/6 of Tiananmen Square of Beijing. It was built prior to Cuban Revolution of 1959 in memory of the Cuban nationalist poet and (Latin America) independence hero José Martí. Across from the statue and monument of José Martí at the north side of the Plaza, there is a giant mural of the Argentina-born Che Guevara, the most popular and well-known romantic figure of Latin America revolutionary in 20th century. More than 40 years has passed after his capture and execution in Bolivia in 1967 at an age of 39, fascination with Che is still going strong with many books written and films made about him including The Motorcycle Diaries.

José Martí, on the other hand, is perhaps less known in pop culture but immensely important in history. He is considered Apostle of Cuban Independence and a great poet and writer. Unbeknownst to many, there is a statue of José Martí (see the public domain photo on the net at right) at the 59th street Artists Gate entrance of the Central Park of New York City. It was created by sculptor Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington in 1959 as a gift to Cuba government for the presentation to the people of New York City right before the revolution. It depicts Marti was fatally wounded atop his horse at the 1985 Dos Rios battle against Spanish. Of course, practically everyone has heard the Cuban unofficial national anthem Guantanamera whose lyrics was adapted from a Jose Marti’s poem. Here is the video of a performance by the legendary American folk singer, songwriter and activist, now 90 year old, Pete Seeger with a 12 string guitar.



There have been plenty of controversies surrounding the “Paz Sin Fronteras” (Peace Without Borders) concert as one might expect. Indeed, there has been a forever debate of if staging a cultural event in a country under an authoritarian regime is a good thing or not. The last notable event that I can recall was the Feb ‘08 visit of New York Philharmonic to North Korea. Then of course one can trace back to the famous 1971 Ping-Pong diplomacy when the U.S. Table Tennis team accepted the invitation by Communist China and visited Beijing that paved the way for the later visit of President Nixon and the normalization. The opponents invariably argue that the world must isolate and punish the oppressive regimes inclusive of cultural exchanges. They argue that any visit or gesture would be a betrayal to the suffering people and give a wrong signal that the world could be tolerant of the regime.

I don’t agree with such a view. Even though it might take a long time to see visible impacts from those visits and exchanges, we must not underestimate people’s intelligence and hunger for the pursuit of happiness wherever and whatever they are. Through the human history, oppressive governments and rulers without exception have been most fearful of independent intellectuals, writers, and artists. Because they know full well that when people’s mind are touched and opened by music, arts, or literature, fear will be replaced by hope, ignorance will be replaced by imagination, and herd-like collective behavior will be replaced by individual expression and creativity. Doesn’t it defy the logic then if one wants to help those dictators to further isolate and deprive people the opportunity to see the outside world, no matter how small that window is?

Over 20 years ago, a good friend of mine in telecom business once told me of his dream of democratizing Communist China quickly. He would employ satellites to broadcast TV programs to mainland China. In his calculation, the sheer exposure of the outside world to people in China would be sufficient to start the spiraling demands for more economic freedom, democracy, and ultimately an alternate government system. With the ubiquitous reach of Internet, what he has envisioned has been well underway in last decade and there is no return now for China. The doors and windows needs to be opened for Cuba, North Korea, and alike. Music and arts are the most powerful media and platform to achieve freedom. They transcend the language and cultural gaps. They inspire and unite people. I would love to see more concerts like “Paz Sin Fronteras” (Peace Without Borders) be held in many places of the world.

By the way, U.S. has imposed travel ban and embargo since early 60's. President Obama has been pursuing a different and more sensible policy regarding U.S.-Cuba relations. On April 13, 2009, he had loosened the travel ban and now allowing Cuban-Americans to travel freely to Cuba. For everyone else, the closest one can travel to in U.S. for now is Key West of Florida, the southernmost point of U.S. continent which is 90 miles away from Cuba. If you vacation in south Florida, don’t miss it. It is a charming town where one of the greatest American writers Ernest Hemingway used to live. In addition to touring the Hemingway house, you can visit 33rd President Harry Truman’s (1945-1953) Little White House where he spent many winter days during his presidency.

Talk to you soon!

Hudson River 400th Anniversary

400 years ago this month, Henry Hudson, an English explorer working for the Dutch East India Company made his third trip in his ship Halve Maen (means Half Moon in English) across Atlantic to New York Bay. Hudson and his men found and managed to sail up a broad tidal river all the way to nowadays Albany. In honoring the discovery, the river was later named after him by the settling Dutch immigrants and is now known as the Hudson River whose last 21 miles forms the border of New York City (on its east) and New Jersey. For those of you who have never seen or heard of this river, you surely would recall the news of “Miracle on the Hudson” earlier this year (to be exact, Thurs, Jan 15th) when captain "Sully" Sullenberger crash-landed his Airbus 320 plane of U.S. Airways flight 1549 on the freezing Hudson River and brought all 155 passengers and crew to safety.

The exploration was obviously economically motivated. After the Portuguese explorer Fernão de Magalhães (Ferdinand Magellan in English) and his crew, sponsored by the Spanish crown, proved once-and-for-all in their 1519-1522 epic journey by sailing westward that the earth is round, many including Henry Hudson tried to find shorter and safer routes to Asia, thus a more competitive way to reach the Spice Islands of Indonesia. His employer, Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602 by the Parliament of the Netherland as a monopoly for all its colonial activities (including diplomatic and military!) in Asia. Within six months, Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the world’s first modern day stock exchange was formed and Dutch East India Company became the first multinational corporation and the first to issued stocks in the world. In an equivalent of today’s IPO (Initial Public Offering), it raised over 6 million guilders of capital, or equivalently about today’s 100 million dollars. The investor was not disappointed; Dutch East India Company was extremely profitable and had been paying an incredible dividend of 18% every year for the subsequent 200 years!

In 1609, Henry Hudson did not bring back to Europe any spices, silk, nor porcelains. Instead he carried back beaver furs from American Indians and the promise of vast land and resources. Subsequently Dutch people began to settle in Hudson Valley and its neighboring regions and called it the New Netherlands which was eventually ceded to England in 1664. Indeed, it was the Dutch who reported to have purchased Manhattan island from the Algonquian-speaking Lenape Indians in 1626 with sixty guilders worth of beads and trinkets. In today’s dollar, it is worth about $1000. However the claim is just Dutch’s version and it is not at all clear what the deal and understanding was by Native Americans given their different or lack of land ownership concept at the time. In any case, the development of the subsequent century for the native residents followed the familiar patterns of American Indian struggles and decimation.

Hudson River is 300+ miles long, flowing north to south through eastern New York State. It starts in Adirondack Mountains, about 100 miles northwest of Albany and ends at the Upper New York Bay. Its widest point is about 3 miles wide at Haverstraw Bay, a little north of Tappan Zee (Tappan is an American Indian tribe name and Zee is Dutch word for “Sea”) Bridge between Rockland and Westchester Counties of New York State. The deepest point of the river is 216 feet, more than twice the depth of deepest part of San Francisco Bay, at the World' End, located near West Point where the world famous U.S. Military Academy is located.

A little north of West Point, right off the main throughway Route 9W, there is an under-developed Storm King State Park next to the river that offers several easy and moderate hiking trails with fabulous views of Hudson River and Valley. One of the parking lots off Route 9W provides convenient access to the trailhead of the Organge-blazed Howell Trail. With less than 1 mile of steep ascend and occasional climb over large granites, one reaches the Butter Hill Summit at 1380 feet, the highest peak of Storm King Mountains. Walking further north and north east, one finds the yellow-blazed Stillman Trail that takes you to the Storm King Summit at 1,340 ft and near Hudson River with several overlooks on the way. The photos to the right was taken from one of the overlooks. As one looks north, Beacon Bridge (Interstate Hwy 84) and Bannerman Castle of the Pollepel Island on Hudson River are clearly visible in a clear day. The trip offers an excellent half-day hikes and scenery. The coming fall colors will no doubtedly light up the whole valley shortly.

Driving south from the Storm King State Park along Hudson River and takes the 40 miles long scenic Palisades Interstate Parkway, one reaches Fort Lee next to the George Washington Bridge, the first motion picture capital of America 100 years ago, now known to some as a Korean town with its high Korean-American population (almost 20% of Fort Lee residents are Koreans) and a perfect place for an authentic Korean dinner. Following the River Road and then Kennedy Blvd through towns of Edgewater, Guttenberg, West New York, Weehawken, one gets incredible views of the beautiful Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River, something that New Yorker themselves don’t see often. Here is a photo of Manhattan taken in the evening from the Hamilton Park in Weehawken, a little north of the Lincoln Tunnel.

Henry Hudson wasn’t the first European explorer to reach New York. It was the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano who, in the service of French Crown, first entered New York Harbor and saw Hudson River in 1524. However he thought it was a lake and did not explore it – a missed opportunity. It wasn’t a total loss. In 1964, the longest suspension bridge of U.S. connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn over the Narrows was completed and was named after him as Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Incidentally, when we took a tour several years ago to Chianti, south of Florence, Italy, we took a break at a small village. Stood at the village plaza, there was a statue. As we read the writings on the plaque, we realized that we were at Greve, the birth place of the local hero Giovanni Verrazano. Come to think of it, I can’t recall seeing statues of explorers in China or Taiwan. The last known explorer by imperial order was Zheng He 鄭和 in early 15th century during Ming Dynasty who went to Southeast Asia, Arabic Peninsula and East Africa. Unfortunately, it was the last major exploration and international trade of China that had a huge negative implication on the lack of advancement of China in modern history. I will save this big topic for some other time.

Talk to you soon!

Taiwan’s Katrina

Typhoon Morakot swept through Taiwan and dumped between 2,000 and 3,000 mm or 6-10 feet of rainfall in parts of Southern Taiwan over three days from Aug 7 to Aug 9, 2009. To give you some perspective, the wettest place in contiguous 48 states of U.S. is the northwest corner (of Washington State), off Pacific Ocean. Its average annual rainfall is around 2,500 mm with over 200 rainy days a year.

The resulting flood caused extensive damages and destruction in southern Taiwan from fisheries to infrastructure. Worse yet, mudslides buried some villages and numerous houses and properties. Over 700 residents lost their lives according to the latest official tally. The last major natural disaster like this on the island took place exactly 50 years ago: On Aug 7th, 1959, Typhoon Ellen brought over 1,000 mm of rainfall over three days and washed away farmlands and roadways in central and southern Taiwan, not to mention almost 2,000 lives were lost. One can’t stop wondering despite the exponential economic growth of the last 50 years, why isn't the island more prepared and why does the history get repeated?

As flood intensified and water level rose, many local and central government clearly weren’t paying much attention to the severity and required proactive actions. The lack of communications, command/control and coordination for speedy emergency response and decision makings for such a large scale disaster was evident. Once the reports of disasters started to dribble in and the TV news clips started to show up on screens, the initial reactions by some politicians were simply stupid and showed a lack of sensitivity. President’s Ma was quoted to question the Central Weather Bureau for its accuracy in forecast; Premier Liu was quoted to defend the government’s emergency response as “faster than the 921 Earthquake disaster 10 years ago”; while lower cabinet ministers, staffs, and local elected officials busily justifying their actions or therelackof. With the media, pundits and some politicians smelling blood and fanning controversies and misstatements, the initial scenes was ugly and exhausting as more and more people’s livelihood was found in peril.

A month has passed by since the political crisis was triggered by the typhoon. The latest casualty was reported on Sept 7th when Premier (or head of the Executive Yuan) Liu ZhaoXuan劉兆玄 announced the resignation of his and his cabinet, effective today. With so much negative coverage and political criticisms during last 30 days, I would not be surprised if most of them felt they had just experienced a political mudslide. The landscape on surface has simply changed overnight. The question remains is how to salvage what is left that is valuable and how to shape the future. Should one just move on business as usual and roll the dice, hoping the next humongous natural disaster will be another 50 years away? Or should one takes a good look at the fundamentals and charts a better course for the future?

The single most important comment (that unfortunately did not receive much attention) came from Shih MingDe施明德,a well-respected, spirited, independent opposition leader and activist for the last four decades in Taiwan. He pointed squarely at the unique semi-presidential government system as the biggest roadblock for democratization and appealed to President Ma to move toward to a Parliamentary system.

Taiwan’s president is granted significant power, evolved out of many decades of autocracy under Chiang’s and political calculations of KMT (Nationalist Party). Unlike the Presidential system in e.g., U.S., Taiwan’s President appoints and can remove pretty much at will the Premier, head of the executive branch who is responsible for government ministration and is responsible to the legislative branch. The "beauty" is that the President can focus more on getting elected while the Premier can become as a convenient political buffer and scapegoat.

Further, unlike the semi-presidential system of France’ fifth Republic, there is no possibility for cohabitation in Taiwan when President and legislative branch come from opposite ends of political spectrum. It was clearly demonstrated by eight years of gridlock of the government from 2000-2008 when Chen Shui-Bian 陳水扁 of DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) was elected twice as President while KMT led coalition controlled the Legislative branch. Legislative Yuan can pass as many bills as it wants and Executive Yuan can drag its feet in implementation. If necessary, President can appoint another Premier with similar ideology and the cycle continues.

Obviously I am not the first one who recognized this fundamental problem. Former Premier Zhang Jun-Xiong 張俊雄 under President Chen was quoted to have commented about the system: “A President who can nominate the Premier without consent of Parliament, is not required to be responsible for Parliament, yet has the right to dissolve Parliament, is creating a powerful President without responsibility and a powerless Premier with responsibility.” This is what just happened in Taiwan in the aftermath of the Morakot disaster.

I feel sorry for Premier Liu, a respected scientist, a former university professor and president. He is one of the few experienced and extremely capable leaders with high integrity and intellects. With a brain-dead semi-presidential system and a narcissistic president, Premier Liu did the last thing he could - resigning from his powerless Premier post with responsibility and dignity. His departure likely marks the end of the legacy of technocracy in Taiwan. If the broken Constitution and political system does not get fixed soon enough, "May God bless the people of Taiwan" - that is the last thing Premier Liu said on his press conference of resignation.

Talk to you soon!