POLITICAL EVOLUTION

Karoline Kan’s story is very personal, but it offers insight to China that is more informative than many history and political polemics that fail to show what it is to be a Chinese citizen in the 21st century.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Under Red Skies (Three Generations of Life, Loss, and Hope in China)

Author: Karoline Kan

Narrated By: Allison Hiroto

Karoline Kan (Author, reporter at Bloomberg, has published in the New York Times, and worked in radio broadcasting, studied at Beijing International Studies University focusing on journalism and writing.)

“Under Red Skies” is a story about Karoline Kan and her life from childhood to adulthood in China. She is based in Beijing, China. Kan writes about life in China before her birth and the change in China after Mao’s death. She provides a rewarding view of China from Mao’s to Deng’s to Xi’s leadership. In ways her story makes one somewhat fearful for her life and freedom, as well as China’s economic miracle and growth as the second most powerful nation in the world. The story of her life presents the puzzle of China’s changing relationship with America and the world. She is subtlety critical of Mao’s rule of China while a beneficiary of the changes wrought by Deng and now Xi in the growing power, economic improvement, and influence of her homeland. She appears to view America positively while being proud of her heritage and particularly appreciative of her mother’s role in her family during great changes in China. She reflects on societal change in respect to the life she lives and what her perceptions are of changes in political leadership wrought by Mao, Deng, and Xi.

The power and importance of mothers is exhibited by a presentation of this “Circle of Life” exhibit in Norway. To this observer, the statue illustrates the great importance of women in nurturing and educating the world’s future generations. The author’s story reinforces that belief.

Ms. Kan’s mother appears to be a formidable objector to some of Mao’s cutural beliefs by being unwilling to kowtow to government policies that conflict with her personal beliefs. Kan’s mother is the driving force behind the move from rural China to a larger community to improve her family’s lives. Karoline is born when the one child policy is enforced in the early 1980s to the 2000s. Karoline is the second child born to her mother. Her mother faced the financial penalties for having a second child and resisted forced sterilization that became the law of the land during her child-baring years. Karoline Kan’s mother appears a force to be reckoned with by traditional male standards in China and a patriarchal bias that exists in most of the world. By that measure “Under Red Skies” seems like an encomium to Karoline’s mother and a tribute to Kan’s bravery in writing a history of her early life and experience as a Chinese citizen.

Our Chinese guide for a 2o18′ tour of China is noted in the essay titled “70% Leadership“. This young guide reminds me of the author, Karoline Kan.

Kan reflects on ambivalent feelings some Chinese citizens have toward America. She expresses surprise that there seems more dislike by China of America than China should have for Japan. History shows conflicts were much greater with Japan than America. Chinese hate of Japan would presumably be more visceral because of deaths from wars and invasions of China by Japan, i.e., the first in the 1894-1895 Sino-Japanese war; then the invasion by Japan in Manchuria in 1931, a second Sino-Japanese war in 1937-1945, and the Nanjing Massacre that killed an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 imprisoned Chinese citizens. The estimate of Chinese casualties from Japan in these conflicts is 15-22 million. Of course, America fought the Chinese in the Korean war in the 1950s but the casualties were 400,000, with the possibility of as many as a million who died from injury, disease, and exposure. More likely, the hate of America is from the context of China’s ambition to be “second to none” in power and influence in the world. In the end, “ambivalence” is not the same as hate. Having traveled to China just after Xi’s rise to power, my wife and I felt very welcome by most Chinese citizens and businesses.

An interesting part of Kan’s story is about religion.

Communism is a political system that does not believe in God. Of course, neither do Buddhist or Taoist traditions which are the human practices and belief in personal truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, i.e., spiritual beliefs about living life on earth because that’s all there is to life. There is no after life or heaven to a Buddhist or Taoist. These two spiritual beliefs are practiced widely in Japan and some places in China, like Tibet. Falun Gong, a Buddhist-like religion, arose in 1990s’ China. In the beginning, China accepted its practice, but the Communist Party eventually fought against its growth and labeled it a “heretical organization”. The Party obviously felt Falun Gong interfered with communist ideals. Additionally, there is the ongoing conflict between the Dali Llama and Tibetan belief (a branch of Buddhism) that is also reviled by China’s political leadership. The point is that communism demands fealty to belief in a classless, stateless society, not controlled or influenced by any social or economic belief other than those of the communist’ party. (One cannot help but reflect on Lord Acton’s phrase about “power” that is at the heart of all forms of government in history.)

Kan’s best friend, who finishes high school at the same time as Kan takes a different path, i.e., either because of her work in school, the poverty of her family, or the “bump” that changes her life.

The last chapters of Kan’s story are the personal journey of women in China. Kan is accepted at a University in Bejing. Marriage has evolved in China but still has many of the same matrimonial customs. Marriages of the past were highly arranged and had little to do with love or attraction. In modern China, marriages have become less determined by family arrangement but more by circumstances of a child’s experience. Like children around the world, parents influence but have limited control over a child’s libidinal impulses. The author’s closest friend becomes pregnant from the son of a poor family that is unable to compensate the daughter’s family in a way that some arranged marriages would provide. The lower dowry implies Kan’s friend is destined to live a life of poverty. Kan shows her to become a factory worker to supplement the family’s income. Her work is hard and highly repetitive but the income from both parents working helps them live better lives. With a husband, wife, and one child, her friend decides to have an abortion because another child would be too expensive for them to live a decent life.

Beijing International Studies University is the school Kan attends and receives a degree.

In contrast to Kan’s friend’s life, Kan goes to college where she is housed with women she does not know but are of her age. Kan’s family is presumably able to help her with expenses, and she goes on to become a journalist and writer. Interestingly, all women (and presumably men) are obligated to serve 2 to 4 weeks of military service before beginning a career-related’ education. The implication of this type of regimentation for all college students implies China has wider international ambitions.

The change in China’s culture with the leadership of Deng and Xi is revealed in Kan’s story. It shows the strengths and weaknesses of capitalism and communism. China’s dramatic economic growth is a result of the endorsement of capitalism with a communist autocratic influence. Interestingly, Kan shows China seems on a road to become more American while America seems to become more Chinese.

Trump and Xi have some similarities.

Kan’s story is very personal, but it offers insight to China that is more informative than many history and political polemics that fail to show what it is to be a Chinese citizen in the 21st century. Kan shows how both China and America have less than perfect systems of government.

HOSTAGE NEGOTIATIONS

The disturbing message of “Swap” is that human beings are currency, i.e., nothing more than a dollar bill, a euro, a yen, a pound, a franc, or a renminbi. Like a hot war, the Cold War monetizes human lives.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Swap (A Secret History of the New Cold War)

Author: Drew Hinshaw, Joe Parkinson

Narrated By: Keith Brown

Drew Hinshaw (on the left) is a senior reporter at The Wall Street Journal.

Joe Parkinson is also a reporter at The Wall Street Journal. Both are Pulitzer Prize finalists and nominees.

Human life is viewed in this new Cold War’ era as economic transaction.

“Swap” is a detailed explanation of how human beings are just bargaining chips. Hinshaw and Parkinson argue that the Cold War has been resurrected by Russia. Russia uses accusations, sometimes lies, and unreasonable charges against foreign travelers and native dissidents to gain leverage in a blood sport that convicts, incarcerates, imprisons, or murders alleged internal spies, dissidents, and foreign citizens. The authors of “Swap” have researched the 2024 hostage exchanges between Russia and the U.S. to illustrate how crude and transactional hostage-taking has become in a new Cold War.

Hinshaw and Parkinson note that 24 prisoners and 2 children were swapped in what is called the “Rubik’s Cube” hostage exchange of 2024.

“Rubik’s Cube” is meant to describe the complexity of a 2024′ human exchange of prisoners between the West and Russia. The most publicly known hostage release from Putin’s Russia was Brittney Griner (the WNBA star) who was the first to be released when Paul Whelan (a former U.S. Marine), Trevor Reed (also a U.S. Marine), Evan Gershkovich (a Wall Street Journal reporter), and Alsu Kurmasheva (an American journalist visiting her family in Russia) were also hostages but later released in a complicated exchange between many nations’ leaders. This later group was released through the work of the American State Department during the Biden administration which had been criticized by some because of Griner’s celebrity being more important than others. Whether true or not, Hinshaw and Parkinson explain the political reality of hostage taking and exchange has evolved since the earlier Cold War.

Vadim Krasikov (a Russian assassin convicted in Germany), several Russian spies, smugglers, and hackers were released to Russia in exchange for a mega-swap of Americans after Griner’s exchange. The mega-swap was highly complicated and a dramatic example of what negotiated hostage exchanges really mean in the 21st century.

Paul Whelan (Canadian-born U.S. Marine arrested in Russia in 2018.)

This complicated “Rubik Cube” transaction began in 2018 when Paul Whelan had been jailed and convicted in a Russian court for alleged spying. (Interestingly, Whelan had been dishonorably discharged from the Marines for bad conduct related to larceny in 2008.) Along with Whelan’s arrest, Trevor Reed’s conviction and incarceration was in 2019, Brittney Griner in 2022, and Evan Gershkovich in 2023. Each arrest was for different alleged transgressions which added to the negotiation difficulties.

Evan Gershkovich (American journalist and reporter for The Wall Street Journal.)

Brittney Griner (American professional basketball player.)

It was the Wall Street Journal’s hostage (Evan Gershkovich) and the WNBA player (Brittney Griner) that intensified negotiations and public awareness of hostage exchange. The authors of “Swap” explain why awareness is only the beginning of understanding. Whelan’s twin brother is identified as one of the most relentless advocates for Paul Whelan’s release. Whelan’s entire family became “accidental diplomats” by injecting themselves into the American government’s ponderous efforts to get Paul Whelan released. The family injected themselves into the American government’s process by becoming squeaky wheels in the negotiating offices of the government.

Several different countries participated in a multiple hostage swap after Griner’s release. Germany, UK, France, Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic were persuaded by the U.S. government to exchange a convicted assassin and several alleged Russian cyber operatives and spies to gain release of Whelan, Reed, Kurmasheva, and Gershkovich.

This negotiated human exchange is a complicated transaction that involved many governments’ participation and agreement. It required coordinated release of eight Russian operatives, one of which was a convicted assassin, and seven others, either proven or suspected spies or smugglers, to be exchanged for Russia’s imprisoned hostages. Along with the U.S., Germany agreed to release a convicted assassin, while the UK, France, Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, and Czech Republic agreed to return several alleged Russian cyber operatives and spies. The releases were coordinated by the CIA and MI6 with the transaction to take place in Turkey. This was an amazing operation that required agreement and coordination by 8 nations to secure an agreement with the President of Russia.

The disturbing message of “Swap” is that human beings are currency, i.e., nothing more than a dollar bill, a euro, a yen, a pound, a franc, or a renminbi. Like a hot war, the Cold War monetizes human lives.

Hostage taking has changed human beings into a commodity like money. War and now hostage release dehumanize society.

THE ARTIST

Fredrick Backman’s story shows how the best and worst adults come from the admixture of life. “My Friends” is a funny and barely believable story, written by a highly entertaining and accomplished writer.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

My Friends (A Novel)

Author: Fredrik Backman

Narrated By: Marin Ireland

Fredrik Backman (Author, Swedish blogger and columnist, also wrote “A Man Called Ove”.

Fredrik Backman’s “My Friends” is an immensely entertaining story that fulfills the meaning of the word “wry”. A definition of wry is “ironically or grimly humorous”. What “My Friends” shows is that the life of a child is as much luck as innate ability and choice.

The main character of “My Friends” is Louisa, a 17-year-old foster child living on the street. She has a preternatural ability to draw and appreciate a work of art.

Backman’s story infers human beings are born with a genetic inheritance reinforced or discouraged by life experiences. Louisa never knows her father and is raised by a mother who drinks herself to death. Louisa is shunted to a neighbor’s care who abandons her to child services. She escapes into the streets of a city where reader/listeners find her meeting a disheveled and apparently ill person outside an art auction house. Louisa is drawing small red fish on a building wall when she is joined by this stranger who begins drawing skulls on the same wall. This chance meeting changes the course of Louisa’s life.

As luck and circumstance would have it, the artist (Kimkim aka C. Jat) is a painter whose work Louisa has admired over her short years of life. She has carried a post card (which she cherishes) that shows the artist’s famous work that is being auctioned. She does not realize the person she is talking to is the artist.

Monet’s “Water Lillies” as an example of a famous work that has been auctioned several times with the last auction amounting to $65.5 million.

Some days later the artist dies in a hospital with his lifelong friend, Ted, at his side. Ted has purchased the world-renowned painting done by the artist. Ted had bid the highest amount for the work because Kimkim wished to give the work to the young girl he had met painting red fish on the wall on which he was painting skulls. Because of his fame, the painting takes all Kimkim had saved over the years of his life.

A skull painter named Jean-Michel Basquiat is referred to as an artist emulated by Kimkim.

The author has set the table for his story. Kimkim dies and asks his life partner, Ted, to give the painting to the homeless girl. There is a fairy tale quality to the story, but it opens one’s mind to the serendipitous nature of life. Children live lives in a world of other’s making. Formative years of every child range from horrendous to beatific. Louisa is just one example of the happenstance of life for a young girl. It makes one think of the horrendous circumstances of children who are raised in war torn countries or on the streets of the homeless in America or other countries that fail to care for the indigent. Louisa’s story is “every child’s” story that is far from ideal but as real as life in the anywhere world.

There is a fairy tale quality to the story, but it opens one’s mind to the serendipitous nature of life.

The twists and turns of Backman’s story have Ted reluctantly taking Louisa under his wing while she maneuvers to escape and leave the valuable painting to Ted. She returns to the street as an 18-year-old young woman on her own. Louisa leaves Ted asleep on a train car with the boxed painting by his side because she does not believe the valuable painting should be hers. A reader/listener is only half-way through this imaginative story. It is not a book one will put down before learning how it ends.

Backman’s story shows how the best and worst adults come from the admixture of life. “My Friends” is a funny and barely believable story, written by a highly entertaining and accomplished writer.

ECOLOGY

Brannen emphasizes the importance of understanding the science of geology, climate modeling, and shaping energy systems to mitigate environmental damage. None of his ideas seem likely to change the direction of world leadership. Thinking on a planetary scale is beyond the interest of world leaders, let alone the fictional “Tom, Dick, and Harry” or “Mohammed, Jose, Wie, and Ahmed”. (All stupid men, of course.)

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything (How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World)

Author: Peter Brannen

Narrated By: Adam Verner

Peter Brannen (Author, Fellow at CU Boulder, science teacher, journalist who has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian and other outlets.)

“The Story of CO2…” is a slog. Though Brannen’s points are important, the details are overwhelming. Brannen offers a view of global warming based on the history of carbon dioxide emissions and its role in earth’s mass extinctions caused by nature, human industrialization and capitalist growth. The scope of his 500+ page book addresses natural history and the advance of human civilization with so much detail that only a polymath would understand his vision of how “living things” end. On the other hand, even an inept reader will feel threatened by his detailed analysis of global warming’s risks to humanity.

On the one hand, it seems Brannen’s emphasis on CO2 discounts the roles of oxygen and water in the growth and survival of humanity but stick with his theme and you get it.

Brannen’s story is a frightening diagnosis of humanity’s risks. His book doesn’t offer much hope for civilization’s future. Brennen explains industrialization is driven by exploitation of energy and human nature. He notes these are the driving forces behind global warming that will end life on earth. It seems human greed is globalized whether political leaders consider themselves socialists or capitalist. Brannen explains societies of the world have exploited energy through release of CO2 in the atmosphere. That release of CO2 has raised living standards of civilization but, at the same time, polluted the world. Brannen argues civilization has little understanding of the truth that carbon dioxide release over eons of time have damaged the environment. Brannen details how that lack of understanding threatens life on earth. More seriously, many leaders of the world refuse to believe the science of global warming and continue to release CO2 into the atmosphere.

What is made clear in “The story of CO2…” is that photosynthesis by plants converts sunlight into energy which makes CO2 the basis upon which all life exists on earth.

All living things are built from carbon. Humanity’s ability to release energy from carbon gave rise to industrialization, modern infrastructure, and global mobility. Living standards of society were raised, food production increased, lifespans were extended, and the public prospered. However, modern times show that excess production of CO2 threatens mass extinction. The irony is that CO2 seemed a free lunch in our early beginnings but now threatens life’s existence.

Global warming.

There are no easy answers to Brannen’s CO2 threat to life on earth. It is unrealistic to believe the world will abandon fossil fuel use. Some, like President Trump in the U.S., believe global warming is just a cycle of nature while supporting and encouraging continued development and use of fossil fuels like coal and oil. Though China has done more than any country to create renewable energy and clean transportation, neither China nor the world will achieve the Paris Agreement limit of a maximin 1.5-degree centigrade increase. In reality, China remains the largest emitter of CO2 with coal, petroleum and natural gas; despite being the largest clean energy investor in the world.

Brannen argues for understanding the true development direction of the world.

To reduce global warming, Brannen recommends a shift in economic and geopolitical systems with an alignment of economies based on ecological impact. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the science of geology, climate modeling, and shaping energy systems to mitigate environmental damage. None of his ideas seem likely to change the direction of world leadership. Thinking on a planetary scale is beyond the interest of world leaders, let alone the fictional “Tom, Dick, and Harry” or “Mohammed, Jose, Wie, and Ahmed”. (All stupid men, of course.)

JAPAN TODAY

Travelling to Japan is an enlightening trip. It may change your life. On the other hand, it may not. It has taken many generations for Japan to become what it is today. By age, America is a baby just learning to walk.

Travel

Written by Chet Yarbrough

Mt. Fuji–on our way to Tokyo from Hiroshima, Japan.

Our brief 3-week visit to Japan this year was a pleasant escape from the hostility of a changing immigration policy in America. Our 15-member group of travelers is guided through Japanese culture by three interesting Japanese citizens, i.e. one–a young Japanese student of the piano; two, an American who has lived in Japan for many years, and three, a Japanese’ Hiroshima guide who is an experienced world traveler and guide to her country. All three showed different aspects of a truly fascinating and beautiful country.

A modern bullet train in Japan transported us at 300 miles per hour from our arrival point to Tokyo.

Two of the most striking experiences for me are 1. seeing the incredibly modern infrastructure of Japan and 2. the intelligent use of a densely populated environment. Both of these experiences offer examples to the world of what can be done to accommodate continued population growth. New York City has a population of 8.48 million people while Tokyo’s metropolitan area accommodates 37 million. As an observer of society, my perception is that Tokyo is friendlier, cleaner, and safer than New York City. This is not to disparage New York. New York is one of the greatest entertainment capitols of the world, along with London, but Japan demonstrates how culture makes a difference in how people live.

Tokyo is amazingly clean with shopping for every person’s interest. Shopping centers and markets are busy throughout the metropolitan area. Crowds of buyers are entertained by the appearance of comic figures and pleased to find everything one wishes to buy with a bow of a business employee’s head and a smile of welcome.

Japan’s public transportation system far exceeds the ease of travel and reliability of New York and other major metropolitan cities in the United States. The highway system and high-speed rail systems of Japan put California’s and America’s fumbling public transportation infrastructure projects to shame.

As an early riser, one can see young women walking by themselves to work in the early morning. They walk down narrow side streets, without concern in Tokyo. In contrast, a woman (let alone a man) is unlikely to feel safe and secure in any of America’s big cities when alone on a street in an early morning or late night.

A professional demonstration of Samurai sword tradition is offered our group. After the professional demonstration, my wife demonstrates her skill but has trouble drawing a sword from her belted scabbard, a very funny demonstration for we who were too reserved to participate but entirely willing to laugh.

A home hosted cultural demonstration is given to four of us. Our hosts are a retired Japanese professor and his wife, who is a professional musician. They entertained us for an hour with music and a demonstration of Kabuki theater.

Undoubtedly, there are many Japanese citizens who do not choose to entertain foreign guests but the respect and deference to strangers provided by this couple is a lesson that every American host or hostess could learn when visited by a tourist from another country.

As one travels across Japan, the cities are densely populated but every open space is either bountifully landscaped or prepared for farming or construction.

A Japanese garden.

In Japan, there is an obvious effort to create garden areas as a refuge from urbanization. It is as though individual businesses are willing to provide space for mini-New York’ Central Parks to balance nature with urbanization. Travelling across Japan, one can view the care of Japanese forests, garden areas, and open spaces between cities. Highways are designed to minimize noise from automobiles on heavily travelled throughfares.

A park setting and monument to the deadly consequence of the atom bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

Japan has government policies that keep homelessness invisible by providing housing for the indigent. It is not a perfect system as is noted by one of our guides who explains there is little help to transition the homeless to working lives. Nevertheless, one feels there is a public acceptance of cost for housing of the poor. America could use some of that compassion.

This is a model rendering of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. (The red ball illustrates the location of the bomb when it exploded over the city. An estimated 70,000 to 80,000 were instantly killed with tens of thousands who died from the long-term effects of radiation and related illnesses.)

One wonders what makes the difference between cultures. Is it religion? Most Japanese are either Shinto or Buddhist (92.3%). The confluence of these two beliefs is evidence of a common belief that life involves suffering but that everything in nature is a celebration of life rather than preparation for an afterlife. To Japanese, one must have harmony with nature, sincerity, and celebration of life rather than salvation or a beatific afterlife. The Japanese strive to achieve peace within themselves. The ideal is to achieve what is call nirvana, a peace beyond suffering.

Dharmachakra - Wikipedia
The Toril Gate above and the Wheel of Dharma below are the symbols of Shinto and Buddhist belief.

I am unsure of the licensing requirements for renting a car in Japan. However, one of our guides advised that he had tried to get a driver’s license twice. He advised the written test is a snap. However, he flunked the driver’s test both times and still has no Japanese driver’s license. After travelling around Japan in taxis and buses, it becomes easy to understand why a driver’s test is so difficult to pass. The roads of Japan are often quite narrow. It is necessary to wait for oncoming traffic before you can proceed. The judgement of a driver is called upon in many narrow road circumstances and only practice reveals the appropriate maneuvers. Added to that complication is the expense of the test when seeking a driver’s license. With a driver test, the cost is $2,000. Traffic is heavy in the major cities and in some rural areas. As a visitor, public transportation is excellent–so considering a car rental is problematic, if not unwise.

Travelling to Japan is an enlightening trip. It may change your life. On the other hand, it may not. It has taken many generations for Japan to become what it is today. By age, America is a baby just learning to walk.

Here’s wishing you a great trip if you choose to go.

PREJUDICE

Unless or until our prejudices are eradicated, man’s inhumanity to man will continue. The truth is that “The World After Gaza” will be the same as “the world before Gaza” but with a different order of prejudice.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The World After Gaza (A History)

Author: Pakaj Mishra

Narrated By: Mikhail Sen

Pakaj Mishra (Author, Indian essayist. He wrote “Age of Anger” reviewed in this blog.)

As pointed out in a previous review of Mishra’s book “Age of Anger”, “…unless or until human beings see themselves as part of the same society, the world will end in the Armageddon of biblical imagination.”

Leadership prejudice.

Mishra is born in a prosperous Brahmin family that becomes poor after India’s land distribution in 1947 which was meant to reform feudal landholding practices in India. Undoubtedly, the harshness of that reform has some influence on Mishra’s expressed views in “The World After Gaza”. Mishra’s father has a Brahmin Hindu background which suggests his son is raised in an upper caste in Hindu society that falls into hard times.

“The World After Gaza” is categorized by Mishra as a history.

Mishra recalls the horrendous past of Germany’s holocaust where 6,000,000 Jews were murdered by Hitler’s followers. He infers that horrendous event is reminiscent of what Israel is doing to Palestinians in Gaza. His point is not to vilify Israel but to suggest societies are inherently prejudiced and inclined to discriminate against those who are not a part of their belief system. In essence, Mishra offers a view of history that corroborates Mark Twain’s belief that “History never repeats itself, but it does rhyme”.

Whether one agrees with Mishra’s view of Israel’s actions in Gaza or not, prejudice is an undeniable truth of human societies.

There are many Jews who are undoubtedly appalled by what is happening in Gaza but there are Israeli’ leaders who believe what they are doing is in the best interest of their country. One may associate Israel’s, America’s, or any country’s leadership as either right or wrong from a personal perspective, but the nature of humanity is what it is. Prejudice is an equal opportunity exploiter of human’ equality. Unless or until our prejudices are eradicated, man’s inhumanity to man will continue. The truth is that “The World After Gaza” will be the same as “the world before Gaza” but with a different order of prejudice.

PHYSICS

Becker does not tell listener/readers anything new about reality in his book, but he outlines the difficulty Physics is having in trying to discover “What is Real”. For this reviewer, Einstein remains the sun around which Physics’ scientists revolve.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

What is Real (The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics)

Author: Adam Becker

Narrated By:  Greg Tremblay

Adam Becker (Author, science writer with a PhD in astrophysics from the University of Michigan and a BA in philosophy and physics from Cornell.)

This is an excellent story about the meaning of quantum physics even though the answer remains elusive. Becker does a great job of revealing the personalities of great physicists of the twentieth century, i.e. Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, David Bohm, Werner Heisenberg, John von Neumann, Hugh Everett III, John Bell, and to a lesser extent, Paul Dirac, and Grete Hermann.

Bohr is shown to be a brilliant person who gathers the luminaries of physics around him like a queen bee to a beehive. Surprisingly, Becker notes Bohr’s abstruse and convoluted verbal and written explanations of physics cloud his brilliance but fascinate and inform young scientists. In contrast, Einstein appears like a sun that physics’ luminaries revolve around. Einstein never accepts the idea of quantum physics that implies we live in a probabilistic world. David Bohm is a brilliant physicist exiled for his political beliefs but importantly theorizes the Pilot-wave theory for quantum physics that suggests wave collapse is immeasurable and therefore meaningless. If true, the “cause and effect” world insisted upon by Einstein is correct. Surprisingly, Einstein demurred but the theory is being resurrected by Logical Positivist today.

Though Heisenberg creates the idea of Quantum theory that argues for a probability world, he becomes a Nazi science leader who fortunately fumbles the mathematics that could have created an atom bomb for Germany during WWII.

As a protege of Bohr, the theory of a Quantum world takes hold of scientists. John von Neumann is shown as a mathematical genius who challenges Bohm’s Pilot-wave theory because quantum mechanics appears to work and is proven by experimentation. Bohm argues, like Einstein, that the universe is fundamentally knowable and deterministic, not probabilistic. Hugh Everett III is taken under the wing of John Wheeler who is Everett’s PhD advisor at Princeton. Everett is characterized as a brilliant student who takes the idea of the disappearance of a collapsed quantum particle not as a collapse but an entry into another world, another dimension of reality.

Having read and partly understood many books about physics, Becker’s history is most entertaining because of added information about physicists’ personalities and disagreements, along with their personal trials and tribulations.

An added benefit is a little more understanding of physics that is offered to dilatants of science like this science ignoramus.

Pilot Wave Theory suggests the collapsing wave shown by quantum experiments is of no concern and that it should be ignored as a factor for non-predictability.

Putting aside collapsing waves in theoretical physics, the pilot wave theory, also known as Bohmian mechanics, was the first known example of a hidden-variable theory, presented by Louis de Broglie in 1927. Its more modern version, the de Broglie–Bohm theory, interprets quantum mechanics as a deterministic theory, and avoids issues such as wave function collapse, and the paradox of Schrödinger’s cat by being inherently nonlocal. This nonlocal experimental proof violates Einstein’s physics beliefs.

The surprising reveal in Becker’s history is the growing belief in Logical positivism which suggests the argument for quantum mechanics is flawed.

As one goes back to Bohm’s Pilot-theory. The surprising reveal in Becker’s history is the growing belief in Logical positivism which suggests the argument for quantum mechanics is flawed. The inability to measure both position and momentum is not proof of the theory because it is not an observable phenomenon. In a backward sense it implies Einstein is still the sun around which physics scientists orbit. An irony is that Becker believes Einstein would not want to be considered a Logical Positivist.

John Stewart Bell (1928–1990) was a Northern Irish physicist whose work reshaped the foundations of quantum mechanics.

Bell is best known for formulating Bell’s Theorem, a landmark result that showed how quantum mechanics predicts correlations between entangled particles that no local hidden-variable theory can explain. In one sense, that theory suggests as Einstein believed, that there is an undiscovered theory that will return physics to a cause-and-effect world. However, belief in non-locality is something Einstein could not accept. He refused to believe in “spooky action at a distance”. Bell was born in Northern Ireland. His fascination with science led him to CERN in Geneva where he worked on foundational questions in quantum theory.

Bell’s work laid the groundwork for quantum information science, including quantum computing and cryptography.

Bell came from a modest background and rose to prominence through sheer intellectual brilliance. He worked at CERN in Geneva, where he pursued foundational questions in quantum theory as a kind of “hobby” alongside his main work in particle physics. His 1981 paper “Bertlmann’s Socks and the Nature of Reality” used a quirky analogy to explain quantum entanglement and the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox.

LHC MAP SHOWING CERN SITE

Bell wasn’t just a theorist—he was a philosopher of physics in the deepest sense, asking what quantum mechanics tells us about the nature of reality itself. Bell derived mathematical inequalities—called Bell inequalities. He believed that any local hidden-variable theory must obey these inequalities. However, quantum mechanics predicts violations of these inequalities under certain conditions. Bell is reintroducing the belief that quantum particles are fundamentally probabilistic and interconnected in ways that defy classical intuition. The universe doesn’t follow the rules of local realism. Quantum mechanics is correct, but it’s weird—deeply weird and challenges Einstein’s belief that physics are a local phenomenon that will be predictable based on an undiscovered truth.

Logical positivism and Bell’s Theorem intersect in a fascinating way. Bell’s Theorem challenges some of the foundational assumptions that logical positivists held about science, meaning, and reality. Because of “spooky action at a distance”, his theory defies Einstein’s belief in locality and reintroduces the concept of unpredictability which Einstein refuses to believe.

As a philosopher, Hermann (19o1-1984) had a particular interest in the foundations of physics. In 1934, she argues for a conception of causality with a revised view of quantum mechanics. Her work reinforces Einstein by returning Quantum Physics to predictability and causality. Hermann concludes–despite experiments that showing quantum mechanics are probabilistic, the theory is wrong because of a misunderstanding of nature. This seems like a cop-out supporting Einstein’s belief that there are some undiscovered laws of physics.

Becker does not tell listener/readers anything new about reality in his book, but he outlines the difficulty Physics is having in trying to discover “What is Real”. For this reviewer, Einstein remains the sun around which Physics’ scientists revolve.

TRUTHINESS

In the end, one understands Cohn to be saying the best one can do with a book review is to clearly explain what the writer writes and do the same when explaining your opinion.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Critical Thinking Skills (For Dummies)

Author: Martin Cohn

Narrated By:  Stephen Thorne

Martin Cohn (Author, British philosopher with PhD in philosophy of education from the University of Exeter.)

It seems prudent to listen to “Critical Thinking Skills” because of the many book reviews done in this blog that are flawed. Cohn offers some insight to what a book reviewer should be thinking about when reviewing an author’s book. One should be interrogating themselves to understand their prejudices when trying to explain what an author is trying to tell its reader/listeners. Easy to say, not easy to do, because one rarely understands their own biases.

Understanding one’s prejudices.

Not surprisingly, Cohn notes one needs to understand their own assumptions and biases. The author of a book has their own biases but if the book is positively accepted by the public there is some reason to believe they have something worth understanding. The difficulty is in reviewing a book without distorting what the author is writing because of the reviewer’s bias.

It is interesting that Cohn notes early on that the most important chapters of his book are Chapter 1 and 9 and that if one wishes to abbreviate their examination of “Critical Thinking Skills” these are the two most important chapters. It is interesting because it is a self-effacing admission of an author who does not project a “holy than thou” attitude about his writing.

On balance, this listener views Cohn as one who is skeptical about everything he reads and that his advice is that everyone should adopt the same attitude when reading any book. He argues one should take notes as they read and suggests skimming is an acceptable way of getting to the heart of what an author is trying to say. Cohn goes on to recommend that one review their own writing about another’s work to be sure what an author is writing is clearly and objectively revealed.

Truth or truthiness.

What is disconcerting about Cohn’s analysis is that the best one can be is a skeptic about everything. Good advice but it raises so many questions about whether everything one writes or believes is based on truthiness. Cohn points to the brilliance of many while noting ancient Greeks like Aristotle and modern geniuses like Newton and Einstein have been wrong. This is a consistent point of view for a skeptic, but it makes one wish for truth about something. In the end, one understands Cohn to be saying the best one can do with a book review is to clearly explain what the writer writes and do the same when explaining your opinion.

BALANCE

It is ironic that Trump has suffered so much from America’s legal system and is unable to see NIMBY mentality and a return to the past will not “Make America Great”.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Breakneck (China’s Quest to Engineer the Future)

Author: Dan Wang

Narrated By:  Jonathan Yen

Feng Chen Wang aka Dan Wang (Author, Canadian technology analyst and writer, visiting scholar at Yale Law School.)

Dan Wang is a highly credible author of the 21st century economies of China and the United States. Mr. Wang’s mother and father were born in China when the one child policy was the law of the land. Mr. Wang was born in Canada in either 1991 or 1992. Though Mr. Wang may be an only child, his parents advised him that living in China was challenging because of its state control and family planning that restricted their human rights.

Dan Wang has lived in Canada, America, and China.

From 2017 to 2023 he worked as a technology analyst in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. As a young man, Wang bicycled across China with young friends. Having been educated in Canada and the United States, growing up in Toronto and Ottawa and going to high school in Philadelphia, he has a broad understanding of the economies of all three nations. Of course, his specialty is technology which gives him a unique understanding of what is happening in America and China today. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 2014, studying philosophy and economics.

Trump’s apparent view of Xi.

After listening to Wang’s book, one begins to understand why President Trump’s perspective is that the world, with emphasis on China, has taken advantage of America’s economic wealth by eviscerating its industrial industries with less expensive product made in other countries. Wang presumes as a person who has an economics education that Adam Smith (the Father of Economics) and Donald Trump are right when they argue tariffs are justified in areas of national defense, or for retaliation. On the other hand, Adam Smith, noted “It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family, never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy.”

Adam Smith (Father of Economic Theory)

Smith argued if another nation can provide the same product for less cost, a prudent buyer should buy the cheaper product and use money saved to produce a different product. Wang and Trump disagree with Smith because the revenue producer that America turns to is the service industry rather than product development. What is missed by Wang and Trump is that America is the third largest agricultural producer in the world with China and India being the largest. Of course, the difference is that America has 1/3rd the population of China and India, respectively. Lower population and high agricultural production in the United States hugely benefits its economy. More significantly, food, like water, is an essential need of life. The point is that non-food product production is not necessary for living life.

Loss of industrial production to China.

Wang’s and Trump’s argument is that America’s loss of industrial production has made it too dependent on other countries. They either infer or say Americans are forgetting how to manufacture product. They argue American industries are closing because of America’s inability to compete with other nations because of labor and material cost differences. History shows America fails to expand its industries because production of things is provided by other nations at a lower cost. And as Adam Smith noted, “It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family, never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy.”

Wang decries America’s movement toward a service industry as the basis for economic growth.

America is the richest country in the world, but America has failed to eliminate poverty, house the homeless, feed the malnourished, and provide for the infrastructure needed to improve America lives. One may ask oneself-what is wrong with becoming a service industry nation? Why does America have to return to its past. As Adam Smith noted: “It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family, never to attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy.” The future is about being healthy, being housed, fed, and clothed. It should not be about being the richest and fattest minority in the world, particularly when there is an inordinate gap between the rich and poor.

Wang argues America’s economy is diminished, not by reduced industrialization, but by its growth of legalism that reinforces nimby (not in my backyard) litigation.

Delays in public improvements in America are restrained by lawsuits that protect the rich and victimize the poor. An example is the long delays in mass transportation improvements which become more costly with every year that passes before completion. The delays are caused by litigation. When China can build rapid transit in 3 years while it takes 15 or more years in America, one wonders why. The huge investments China has made in massive infrastructure improvements have vastly improved their economy. In contrast, America wastes investment resources litigating mass transportation improvements in California, Washington, and other states by increasing costs from delays caused by litigation. It is like throwing the baby out with the bath water because the number of people who benefit from infrastructure improvement are largely discounted or ignored. Equally appalling is homelessness in America because of NIMBY’ objection to low-cost multifamily housing that could get the homeless off the street. Cost benefit analysis should prevail, not litigation based on interest group objection. In Wang’s terms, American infrastructure decisions should be based on science and engineering like, what he argues, China bases their infrastructure decisions upon.

President Eisenhower.

The fundamental point is that America has lost sight of the importance of a balance between benefit to the public and individual rights. Equality of opportunity is split between the rich and poor with the middle class being too complacent while the rich reap unconscionable reward. Where are the Eisenhower-like Presidents who promoted an Interstate Highway System that created a 421,000-mile interstate highway system?

Trump is no Eisenhower because he wishes to return America to a past rather than look to its future. It is ironic that Trump has suffered so much from America’s legal system and is unable to see NIMBY mentality and a return to the past will not “Make America Great”. Wang’s book explains how China has succeeded in improving their economy while America’s economy is failing.

MANAGEMENT

“Radical Candor” about a creative idea can discourage employee creativity. Scott’s counsel on building trust is her magic potion, but potions can kill as well as heal.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Radical Candor (Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity)

Author: Kim Scott

Narrated By:  Kim Scott

Kim Scott (Author, former executive at Apple and Google, coach for tech companies like Dropbox and Twitter)

The agricultural revolution dates back to 10,000 BCE, 1760 marks the beginning of the industrial revolution, the 1950s evolves into an age of expertise and work knowledge with computerization, in the 1990s connectivity and automation begins the information age. Today, Kim Scott addresses the 2020s along with the advent of artificial intelligence. Beginning when the industrial revolution takes hold, organization management evolves into a social science. In the industrial age training changes from demonstrating how to make things to managing people’s work in making things. Jumping to the Information Age managers of people become ringmasters for employee’s creativity.

Despite many changes in purpose for organizations a common thread is managerial skill which entails political and personal skills. Managers pursue understanding, influence, ability, and sincerity of purpose to elicit and manage human creativity.

Scott outlines management skills in “Radical Candor”. Her book is a useful tool for aspiring managers. Even reaching back to the agricultural age, there is relevance in Scott’s belief in “Radical Candor”. She defines radical candor as “Caring personally while challenging (organization employees) directly.” By personally caring, Scott explains good managers must gain the trust of people who report to them. My personal experience as a former manager in different careers shows that no manager knows everything about the company or organization they manage. The one thing a good manager must know is how to develop trust with people who report to her or him. Without trust between managers and workers, organizations are likely to fail.

Trust between managers and employees is even more true today because worker’ creativity drives technological invention and utility.

Being vulnerable by understanding you know nothing about people you manage is the starting point of your role as a manager. Scott explains the first thing a new manager must do is personally meet with each direct report to hear what they do for the organization, what they like and dislike about what they do, and what obstacles get in their way that impede accomplishment. The two-fold purpose of these meetings is first to listen, not judge or criticize what is being reported. The second is to build trust.

(I believe A.I. will always be a technological tool, not a controller, of society, contrary to those who believe human existence will be erased by machines. As a technological tool of humanity, the creativity of human minds is at the frontier of management change.)

Scott explains how important it is to let employees know their manager is interested in an employee’s goals and growth in an organization.

A manager must be both physically and emotionally present when building trust with an employee. There is a need for a manager to explain one’s own vulnerability and responsibility in managing others. Scott’s point is that gaining trust of an employee requires more than knowing their birthday. A good manager will ask for feedback about what an employee is doing and what support a manager can offer to improve their performance. A manager should be curious, not furious when things are not going well. It is important that a sense of respect be given for an employee’s effort to get their job done. With development of respect, it becomes possible to use radical candor to constructively criticize or complement an employees’ performance.

Scott notes there are many reasons for an employee’s failure to perform beyond expectations.

Those reasons include incompetence but also the failure of management to have a clear understanding of an employees’ strengths and weaknesses. Through development of trust between manager and employee, a different job may be in order. With reassignment and a performance plan, a manager may be able to tap a human resource that has been wasted. The performance plan is instituted with “Radical Candor” and offers either opportunity or, if performance improvement fails, dismissal.

Every organization has distinctive operational idiosyncrasies that a manager may not precisely understand.

This has always been true. It is even more true in the tech age because project uniqueness and employee creativity is more difficult to measure and manage. Kim Scott has worked with the most iconic tech companies of modern times, e.g. Apple, Google, Twitter. There are a number of anecdotes about famous tech giants and officers of Facebook, Apple, and Google, like Sandberg, Cook, and Page. Kim has also started her own businesses, some of which failed, and others that prospered. Her experience offers credibility to her arguments.

From personal experience as a manager of others, no manager ever knows all there is to know.

As Scott notes, this is not to say that geniuses like Steve Jobs did not know more than his Apple employees, but the iPhone idea came from a group of employees before approaching Jobs with a clunky mock-up of the idea. Jobs had a reputation for being a tough audience for people with creative ideas. This is the reason Kim Scott explains trust must be created between manager and employee so that candor about needs and expectations can be usefully employed to improve probability of personal and organizational success.

One takes Kim Scott’s counsel on “Radical Candor” with some reservation because misused “Radical Candor” about a creative idea can discourage employee creativity. Scott’s counsel on building trust is her magic potion, but potions can kill as well as heal.