Sunday, September 25, 2011

The Panda Bear on Pandas on the Internet and Food Advertising

Instead of doing housework the Panda Bear is sitting at her computer writing her blog.   The Panda Bear would rather do almost anything rather than clean-see the post The Panda Bear on Housecleaning.

The human Panda Bear did not get to be an Internet TV.   In the future, she will not announce outside projects until after they take place   She now realizes the media can be tough. She apologizes if she inconvenienced any of her readers; she knows how valuable everyone's time is.  Once at work  the Panda Bear was on the telephone with someone from a foreign country.   This person at the end thanked the Panda Bear for her "valued time".   The Panda Bear was very impressed with this thought and wishes more people would be considerate of people's limited time.

However, there are plenty of opportunities to see Panda Bears on the web.  The Panda Bear found this website http://www.perfectpandas.com/ which has the different web cams of the zoos which have Panda Bears.  The Panda Bear likes the web cams of the San Diego Zoo and the Atlanta Zoo.    The Pandas are so cute!!! They love to eat their vegetables.   In fact, Panda Bears have a much better approach to birthday cakes then humans.   Both the San Diego Zoo and the Atlanta Zoo have videos of Pandas and their birthday cakes.  For their birthday, the Panda Bears will get an ice cake with bamboo shoots and other fruits and vegetables.  The Pandas will eat the fruit and vegetables and instead of eating the cake they will play with their cake.  Just think how much healthier human beings would be if on their birthday they would celebrate by eating fruits and vegetables and using their cake to get exercise!!!

The Panda Bear was reading a book review about the book The Way of the Panda: The Curious History of China's Political Animal.   The book deals with the Wests fascination with the Panda Bear.   There is some speculation the that Westerners like Pandas because they seem a little human like and they have a reputation for gentleness.   The Panda Bear agrees from what she has read about the Panda Bears and seen on the zoo web cameras that they seem for wild animals to be gentle creatures .They were once caniverous but now mostly like to eat plants.   They seem to like to hang out in the forest  eating bamboo.  Furthermore,  they have a short mating season(in other words these are not oversexed animals).

Therefore it bothers the Panda Bear when she goes to the grocery store she sees cereal bars being advertised by using the Panda Bears out from the movie Kung Fu Panda.  These Pandas Bears look mean and tough.   She feels it distorts the true nature of the gentle seeming Panda Bears.   The Panda Bear wonders if Kung Fu Panda shows that we as a culture devalue gentleness(we want our Pandas tough not gentle).

The Kung Fu Panda on food packages in not the only image that the Panda Bear sees on food packages that bother her.   There is a local store that carries alot of products aimed at the Russian  immigrant community where there is a lot of food labels in Russian.  Often the food products have pictures of former Tsars such as Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Elisabeth and the son of the last Tsar,  Alexis.   These images the Panda Bear can kind of understand(the old Tsars-Russian in its old glory days-Alexis died too young to have any impact on Russia).   However, the Panda Bear is amazed to see food products with the picture of the last Tsar-Nicholas II.   The Panda Bear does not like the last Tsar of Russia because she thinks he was a despot and he was behind many of the programs against the Jews of  Russia.   However, even if one was pro-Tsar wouldn't one see Nicholas II as the Tsar who lost it for the monarchy and brought on the communists?  It is hard for the Panda Bear to imagine anyone liking him.

The Panda Bear is also surprised that in these politically correct times there are still on packages only African American Aunt Jemima's., Uncle Ben's and African American cooks on the Cream of Wheat and Cream of Rice cereal boxes.   The Panda Bear feels to be politically correct these boxes either should either have no human image or the images should be multiracial(i.e a white Aunt Jemima, a Asian Aunt Jemima, a Hispanic Aunt Jemima).   The Panda Bear believes the idea behind these pictures is skilled black domestic help waiting on white people.   When she was a child, the Panda Bear remembers alot of anger about images of black servants(the Panda Bear remembers her mother taking away some paper dolls who were dolls black servants of a white nineteenth century family on the grounds of its being racist).   To the Panda Bear it is surprising that black Aunt Jemima,  Uncle Ben and the African American chief of the Cream of Wheat/Rice package have survived into the twenty-first century. 

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The Panda Bear on TV, Modesty, and Being Busy

The Panda Bear is always surprised about how much time working people seem to spend on television.   She would not think they had the time to watch so much television.   The only time the Panda Bear watches television is on Friday night.

That said the Panda Bear(the human one) will be on Internet TV Friday September 23rd at 9:00 pm EST.   She will be on http://www.realcoachingradio.net/ on the show Mind, Body and Soul. 

She invites her readers to see her on the show.   This week the Panda Bear was feeling envious of some other people's career success.   In a later post, the Panda Bear will discuss how stupid it can be to be envious of others.   However, one of the ways the Panda consoled herself was asking herself can any of these people that the Panda Bear envies write the Panda Bear Blog with subscribers in the US, UK, Germany and Switzerland and viewers all over the world?  She thinks in all honesty the answer is no.

The Panda Bear is normally sweet, modest and unassuming person.   She believes that a person's good qualities should speak for themselves and it is rude to flaunt one's success.   However, in blogging as in other endeavors such a marketing and political campaigns to be successful one has to create a "social profile" and make an effort to seem entrenched, popular, wealthy and sucessful.   Especially in political campaigns, the Panda Bear has heard that political insiders want to pick the "winning" candidate so many campaign managers will try to convince people that their candidate is the bandwagon and that people should join  the bandwagon.   In the book  Inside WikiLeaks My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website by Daniel Domscheit-Berg, the former spokesman for Wiki Leaks, claims that Julian Assange tried to make the press think that Wikileaks was a much bigger organization than it was (see Panda Bear's book review).  The successes of many brash and egotistical people is what gives rise to the saying "modesty is a virtue one goes further without".

On a personal level, the Panda Bear has learned that though these are not her values some people like people that have a "designer" label to them.  To these people the Panda Bear has learned to unobtrusively, truthfully and quietly to notify them of her "designer" and "name brand" activites.   Also when the Panda Bear feels that she has been unfairly put down or belittled she has learned to sweetly and factually show the offending party how wrong they are(this incidentally is very effective).  The Panda Bear thinks women many have a harder time stating their accomplishments then men; women more than men  have been taught not to brag.

My where has the time gone?   The Panda Bear was hoping to do several posts today, clean the house and relax.  She will be lucky if she does half of it.   She is also tired and needs to rest.  The Panda Bear wonders-why are we all so busy nowadays?

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Panda Bear on Hiring Americans

The Panda Bear no longer knows whether she is an economic liberal or conservative.   She thinks the government does have a role in helping the unemployed and people in need but she is against the government directly helping business.   A lot of the original economic stimulus package the Panda Bear believes was a political pay off to local politicians and the unions.  

However, the Panda Bear thinks the private sector on its own will not create the needed jobs for the United States.   September 11th changed some of this but the Panda Bear remembers that whenever there was a supposed shortage of workers,  US industry would be able to get visas for foreign workers.   Some of these positions were for jobs that the Panda Bear thought many Americans would want such as engineers, nurses, physicians and computer scientists.   If Americans did not want these jobs, the Panda Bear thought it was because these organizations did not treat their workers the well.  The Panda Bear thought there was some decision was made that it was cheaper to get foreign workers than train Americans for these jobs.

Since September 11, the US has become less open to admitting foreign workers to he US.  However, now many jobs are now shipped overseas.   Many administrative and technical positions once held by Americans are now done by office workers in Asia.

The Panda Bear thinks the US government should be doing more in protecting jobs for Americans.  However, right now both political parties seems to be under the control of big business.    She things US citizens need to put more pressure on both the government and industry to hire American workers in American companies.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

The Panda Bear on Father Panda Bear, Roosevelt, and Obama

The Panda Bear's father(Father Panda)  who is 89 years old was sick and in the hospital this week and now has gone to the rehab for physical therapy.   Therefore, the Panda Bear was unable to do a post on Thursday/Friday.

However, in the hosptial Father Panda Bear said Obama was no Franklin Roosevelt.   Father Panda said his father worked on roads as part of the WPA(the Panda is to busy right now too look at what it stands for but it was greated by the Roosevelt adminstration to provide jobs for the unemployed).  When World War Two began, Father Panda's father was able to get a regular job in the factories which got busy supporting the war effort.

When the Panda Bear was laid off in the early nineties and was unemployed for about a year during the first Bush adminstration, many older people told her how much Franklin Rooselvelt did to help the unemployed.

Monday, September 12, 2011

The Panda Bear on September 11

The Panda Bear wishes to express her deep sympathy to the families of the victims of September 11.   In respect to the families of the September 11 victims the Panda Bear will keep her post about it very short and serious.   The Panda Bear did not loose anyone on September 11 but she did know people in New York City at the time and knows from them how upsetting the experience was for them.
During September 11, the Panda Bear was working near downtown Boston where the were concerns that Boston might be attacked and she saw the enhanced security around the city and she herself felt nervous that Boston might be attacked.

Before September 11, most Americans did not know what it was like to experience a direct attack.   As readers of the Panda Bear Blog may know that the Panda Bear's mother(Mother Panda) lived through the Japanese invasion of the Philippines,    Where the Panda Bear grew up, many of the parents of the children she knew had experienced WWII in countries such as England, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, China and Japan where the parents had experienced their countries being at war and the country had been directly .   Before September 11, the Panda Bear had not realized how difficult, frighting and infuriating war can be.

The Panda Bear would like to express her thanks and appreciation to the English who withstood major bombings during WWII which she thinks some of her fellow Americans don't fully appreciate.

Friday, September 9, 2011

The Panda Bear on the Abuse of the Word Nazi

The political rhetoric in the United States has gotten emotional, nasty and cruel.   The Panda Bear thought this extreme rhetoric started from the right but currently the Panda Bear thinks its coming from all sides of the political spectrum.   What she finds most disagreeable is how both the right and left are just throw the term "Nazi" around to describe a political opponent.   The Panda Bear would like to start a movement to keep the term Nazi to refer to the Nazi party of Germany.  

As readers of the Panda Bear Blog may know, that the Panda Bear's mother(Mother Panda) grew up in Germany in a city called Breslau now called Wrocław which became part of Poland after WWII.    Mother Panda lived under the Nazis from 1932-1938.  When the Panda Bear was growing up, Mother Panda always complained about jokes about the Nazis.   To her the Nazis weren't funny-they were people that wanted to kill her and did kill members of her family who stayed in Germany.  Mother Panda knew of both Jews and non Jews who opposed Nazism who were killed just after Hitler after Hitler took power by the Nazis.  Though, it is a flawed source, the Panda Bear was reading in Wikipedia, that Breslau was a section of Germany that supported Hitler from the beginning.     Panda Mother says she remembers many people seemed to embrace Nazism without any outside pressure to do so.   Growing up, in this kind environment my mother's family had to pay close attention to the political term "Nazi" and what this means in terms for her and her family's safety.

In Merriam Webster's Dictionary , one definition of Nazi is an overbearing person.   The Nazis were more than domineering people-they were cold blooded killers who murdered many people in Europe.
Here is a link to Wikipedia's explanation of the term Nazism and what it means.  Neither George Bush or Barack Obama are Nazis under this definition even though their opponents call them by that name.  In fact Obama would not even be eligible to be a member of the Nazi party since he is part Black and the Nazis believed in white supremacy.

The Panda Bear in future blog posts will describe what she believes the improper use of the word "Nazi" and how she feels it is diluting and misrepresentating what the GermanNazis truly believed and did.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The Panda Bear on Labor Day and her Blog Readership

Because of Labor day, the Panda Bear will be posting on Tuesday and Friday of this week.
Last weekend in the US was Labor Day weekend, which some consider to be the last weekend of the summer and students return to school. Most businesses were closed September 5. However, here in New England the weather can stay summer-like through September.  

The Panda Bear's US readers may be wondering why the Panda Bear needs to explain Labor Day.   However, the Panda Bear Blog has an international readership.   Google providers several ways of tracking blog readership.  As to be expected, the number one country for the number of viewers for the Panda Bear Blog is the United States.   However, much to the surprise and pleasure of the Panda Bear Blog, the number two country of  Panda Bear Blog readers is-drum roll please-is Germany.  In fact last week, there were more German viewers than US viewers of the Panda Bear Blog.   The Panda Bear is very surprised the Germany is the number two country of blog readers because it is not an country that speaks English as its first language.   Great Britain ranks as the number third country of Panda Bear Blog readers.  The Panda Bear would have thought Canada would be in the number two spot of blog readers since it is near the US.   The Panda Bear Blog also appears to have some regular readers in Brazil which is also not an English as first language country,

The Panda Bear wishes to take advantage of Labor Day to thank and express her sincere appreciation for the common working person and all that he and she does for everyone(Actually, the Panda Bear considers herself to be a common working person).    The Panda Bear knows of many people where it just their having a good work ethic that stops them from going on public assistance;they don't materially benefit from working.   The Panda Bear also knows of many people who work hard at their jobs despite difficult working conditions.  The Panda Bear thinks it is simply these people's having a good work ethic that makes these people persevere and excel in the jobs they do.  These people aren't being rewarded for their supreme efforts financially-they could probably get away with doing less.

More should be done by companies and society in general to show they appreciate the hard work of average people.   What strikes the Panda Bear as being extremely unfair is that it is easier for people on public assistance to go on vacation than working people.   Working people even if they have "vacation" time have to spend much of it doing chores after work which is not a problem for people who don't work.

The Panda Bear proposes that the new work incentive should be that very well earned leisure and deserved leisure.   Perhaps people who work would not have as MUCH leisure as those that don't but they could have a high quality leisure.    The Panda Bear supports much of the effort of Take Back Your Time whose goal is to increase the amount of leisure time in the US/Canada.

Finally, in closing, the Panda Bear would like to share some songs Labor Day songs that were collected by Peter Rothberg of the Nation magazine.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

The Panda Bear on Preventative Measures

Life has returned pretty much back to normal after the hurricane scare in the Boston, Massachusetts area. The Panda Bear and her husband still have to take down the masking tape from their windows. The few people who don't have electricity are shortly expecting to have their power back.

However, on the radio in Boston many talk show hosts were making fun of the intense publicity surrounding the hurricanes and stating that it was politically motivated. Granted hurricanes hardly ever make it to Boston area and the Panda Bear has lived through several false hurricane alarms. However, the Panda Bear believes that it is better for government officials to err on the side of caution. To the people who lost the electricity everywhere as a result of the storm and to the people in New Jersey and Vermont where the flooding was heavy the tropical storm Irene was a crisis.

Many times steps are taken as a precautionary measure even if the chance of something actually happening are relatively small. The Panda Bear has lived and worked in buildings where the fire alarm would go off for trivial reasons a few times of month during certain time periods. It would get to the point where the Panda Bear would be tempted to ignore these fire alarms. When this happened the Panda Bear would tell herself that the one time she ignored the fire alarm would be the time the building would burn down.

Cancer screenings are another example of precautionary measures. Women are advised to routinely have to have pap smears and after a certain age mammograms. There is a certain level of anxiety that is involved with these tests. There have been other times the Panda Bear has had have to have additional examinations and procedures done to make sure that whatever was wrong with the Panda Bear was not cancer(even though she was told the possibility of its being cancer was low).

These tests can be frustrating and stressful even though the Panda Bear is very glad that they are around and available to people. (Incidentally, the Panda Bear believes that African Americans still don't have the same access to health care access to health care as Caucasians. The Panda Bear knows of a few African Americans who were at a risk for cancer who did not get offered these extra tests that the Panda Bear who is Caucasian got offered and who was at a lower risk for cancer than these African Americans.).

The most annoying of these tests is the colonoscopy. As readers of the Panda Bear Blog may know the Panda Bear recently had a colonoscopy. The test itself is not bad but the prep is difficult. The Panda Bear had her first colonoscopy May of 2011. It could not be completed because the prep did not work. Therefore the Panda Bear had to have a second colonoscopy done which was done in August which had a more extensive preparation. For this preparation, the Panda Bear had to be both on a liquid diet for two days and take laxatives during those two days. On the second day of the liquid diet and taking this awful tasting laxative the Panda Bear was feeling that medical treatment had not made any progress from the Medieval times when they did purges and did amputations without anesthesia(Seriously, probably some cancer patients feel that their medical treatment is in some ways quite inhumane even if done in the modern medically correct manner).

Fortunately, the colonoscopy turned out well and and the best part is that the Panda Bear won't have to have another one for ten years. She even lost some weight that she wanted to loose. She thinks the weight loss from the gas they put in during the procedure which caused the Panda Bear to loose her appetite for a while.
This routine cancer preventions tests have caused the Panda Bear to take about five days sick leave. Fortunately, the Panda Bear does have work time to do this(in part because she never goes anywhere or does anything exciting).

The point is is the prevention can be an effort and perhaps is not always necessary in hindsight . However, the Panda Bear knows several people who died of colon and cervical cancer who had access to cancer screening but for what ever reason did not feel it was necessary to have them. Probably these some of these people and their families regret these people not taking these tests. The Panda Bear used to work in the insurance industry where there was a saying that insurance is a waste of money until you need it.

The nature of preventative measures is that one can't always judge ahead if they are needed. Often they may be a waste of time. However, if on the small chance something does happen one is glad to have done them.