A Single Man

Critic's reviews didn't rate this movie very highly, but I thought it was amazing. It was very artistic -- lots of slow, long, beautiful shots. On the esthetic level I liked the men in the ocean, moving underwater -- just amazing. The movie was a moving love story. It wouldn't have worked if the protagonists were a straight couple. It's funny how it recently became OK to make movies about gay men. Just 5 years ago it would've been taboo.

Thomas Friedman, You Were my Hero Once

Ah, Thomas Friedman -- how I enjoyed reading your books and columns. No longer. The warmongering wasn't good, but what was the final straw was a recent column about Intel's CEO asking for lower corporate taxes and you agreeing with him! The logic was that if only companies like Intel were given huge tax breaks in the US, then they could afford to become more efficient and somehow, eventually, this would lead to higher tax receipts. And then there'd be better airports in the US, because the local governments will be able to fix them up better.

Firstly, Intel's one of the few companies in the world which do not suffer from low cash flow. Maybe there are small and mid-size businesses that really can't afford to innovate, but Intel just isn't one of them. Their revenue and profits are gigantic, and if there's something that can help them make more money, of course they'll do it -- be it innovating or getting a government handout. Second, the theory that lowering taxes leads to more tax revenue has not been proven -- many countries have tried it, but it only ever worked for things like tax havens. And finally, the actual tax rate that most companies pay is much lower than the nominal tax rate. That's because companies figured out that it's very "efficient" to higher a bunch of lawyers and accountants for a few million to save hundreds of millions on taxes.

So what we really should be advocating is the simplification of the tax law to cut-out as many loopholes as possible.

From Kiev to Kyiv

When I was little and came back from a month-long stay at a summer camp, I would walk around the apartment looking for things that changed and would be disappointed when there weren't that many. Well, coming back to Kiev after a 16.5-year break I suffered no similar disappointment! So much has changed -- some old Soviet buildings gone and replaced by gleaming skyscrapers, Lenin replaced by an underground mall and a Ukraine statue, and all sorts of rule-breaking allowed in museums and theaters for paying customers. It's the rule-breaking I find so disheartening. The new buildings are usually better than what they replace (or at least bigger), so if we leave out the possibly illegal zoning, that's fine. But the sanctioned rule-breaking for money is an indicator of larger issues with the country as a whole.

So many impressions! I'll have to split them up since there's too much.

Funny things about England

1. February is not Black history month here -- it's GLBT month instead!
2. You can pick a title of Queen or Baroness when buying tickets from the Covent Garden Opera House.
3. More to follow...

Good things about England

Dark Kit Kat
Old/interesting buildings
More to follow

Running in Cambridgeshire

Running in Cambridgeshire was quite a surprise. Turns out there are many bicycle paths around, which are perfect for running. The one closest to us goes all the way to Cambridge, 6 miles away. Plus it travels along the river Cam, which is picture-perfect. There are lots of ducks, geese, and some beautiful swans. As mile markers, you have World War II bunkers!

English English

Now that I'm in England, I decided to record all the British things that I notice, just for fun.
Lorry=truck, cheers=thanks, rail station = train station, sorted = arranged...
More to follow. Also, British people generally avert their eyes if you pass them on the street. Today we met the first guy who didn't do that -- probably a hired killer:-)

Finally, a good president!

Wow! What a relief! I didn't allow myself to think that Obama would win all through election day, so it was quite unpleasant. The good part was catching a glimpse of him twice, for the first time ever for us. Once in the morning, while voting, and another time when he was motorcaded home just an hour before the victory became clear.

The next day everyone had a huge smile on their faces in Hyde Park. I can only imaging how good it feels to African Americans. Now everyone is asking themselves -- does this mean that suddenly black kids will start working really hard and succeed much more than in the recent past? I try to imagine what the kids I've worked with would do. I fear that the boost may be short-lived for them. However, on the plus side, maybe Obama as president will institute serious programs to fix what's wrong with the inner city. I heard about a wonderful program in Harlem which takes in parents even before their kids are born and teaches them all sorts of great parenting skills, like proper nutrition for babies, or to read to the kids. The program has been going for many years, and they have a lot of success to show for it -- the kids have been admitted to college, and are still getting help and advice.

My cousin just got in to a master's program in Germany, and she's completely lost because the whole system is new to her. She did her undergrad in Ukraine, where standards were much lower. It must be just as shocking for a first-generation college kid in the States -- where to go for help, what to eat, how to study and work... If the science thing doesn't work out, I'd like to be part of a project like that.

taxes

Just heard a McCain campaign rep talk about Obama's evil "redistribution" of money through taxes. Wait, so she wants the MacDonald's worker pay the same amount in taxes as a Wall Street CEO? Because otherwise it would be redistribution, and that totally wouldn't be fair according to her.
I really believe the whole thing is ridiculous. McCain is convincing people that they should vote for him, contrary to their own economic interest, even though he wants to take middle-class tax money and hand it over to the very rich. And people are falling for it! There was a "man on the street" on NPR saying that those Democrats want something for nothing by asking for tax cuts for the poor and middle class. That's right, not like those folks who get a hundred million for ruining a company. They're really getting paid for some hard work!

Dear Mr Obama

Just read that the most popular election-related video on Youtube was a message by an Iraq vet saying that by calling the Iraq war a mistake, Obama is insulting everyone who has fought and died in it. "Obama does not understand freedom." Hmm... I think the soldier was well-intentioned, and he has a point -- people who died fighting in the war risked their lives nobly. However, there is a huge point the soldier is overlooking: people don't like having freedom imposed on them. Even when some part of the population wants freedom, you can't make it last by a foreign intervention. And freedom isn't the thing that people in many places desire most. We in the US have all these other things -- safety, food, water, electricity, toilets, jobs, money -- that we take for granted. People in Iraq and many other hotspots around the world don't have most of these things, and they want them really bad. Freedom is rated somewhere after all of these things.