Number five. -----Original Message----- From: Jaime R Vergara <pinoypanda2031@aol.com> To: editor <editor@saipantribune.com> Sent: Fri, Aug 22, 2014 3:02 pm Subject: August 29 ST Guo Mei Mei This is my August fool's day valedictory. I wrote a daily column from June to the endof August, a quixotic endeavor. But thereis nothing quixotic about Guomeimei,a Beijing Film Academy grad. The 23-yearcreated a stir when she flaunted a lavish lifestyle in 2011 while claimingrelationship with the Red Cross; the NGO had a 90 percent decline in itsdonations the year that followed. She wasa skilled but sly mistress, also a gambling addict, recently arrested forillegal online betting during the World Cup. It is Ms. Guo's imagination that attracts us. She muscled willpower over the power offear. The politics of suspicionabounds. On the MH17 crash, afterfears' frenzy of trampled evidence to cover-up accountability, theNetherland's PM Rutte said that it now appears "fortunately that more was doneafter the disaster than we thought until now." Local authorities carried out "anintensive search in the area with 800 volunteers, and there were many bodiesrecovered in those (first) days." A 300-truck convoy of humanitarian relief bound for Donets'kwas not allowed passage by Kiev on fear that the convoy might be carrying armsfor the separatist, or worst, an advanced wedge ahead of a Russian invasion. The US found allies in the Philippines and Japan in foistingfear over China's designs in its waters. It coincides with the US Pivot Turn strategy into the Far East away fromthe oil flares of the Middle East, to save the Pentagon's lost face in itsmassive mishandling of the War in Iraq. Japan released a white paper identifying Russia, DPRK, andChina as threats to its national security. Shinzo Abe is the US Pentagon's darling; he got the US StateDepartment's support in the contested four islands of Kiril Skyle Ostrova thatMoscow took over from Imperial Japan after Potsdam and WWII. Meanwhile, the Philippines' maritime claim v. China showed regrettablya double-speak when its Pentagon-guided proposal suggested a three-step processfor claimants: 1) a stop on any activities in the area, 2) a dialogue betweenclaimants, 3) a final recourse to international arbitration. The Philippines recently jumped into thethird step behind the apron of the US Fleet and the diplomatic shield of ASEANbefore the previous steps. South Korea's President Park Geun-hye whose political "allure"faded after the ferry sinking of MV Sewol when she shed tears to apologize forthe local Coast Guards' failure to respond quickly to save lives, was asked torespond to the news that DPRK tested a missile into the East Sea (aka, Sea ofJapan) that flew farther than previous ones, to protest the joint four-decade militarymaneuvers (saber rattling to DPRK) of US-SoKor forces. Park decided that it was time to scrape the joint exercises,get Pyongyang's ear, so folks in the Korean Peninsula, from Jeju to in-land Yanjiand Mudanjiang in China's Manchuria, could cordially start talking to eachother. Kim Jung-un has reunification ofthe Koreas high in his agenda, but the military heads of DPRK, SoKor, and theUS occupying forces would not hear of it. There is too much investment in armaments, and medaled chestboards of selfhood, in maintaining the ideology of conflict and the politics offear to even consider a practical possibility. The four-decade annual large joint exercises are purely for defensivereasons. Right. Track where the money goes and"defense" takes on a different meaning. What I just described re Pres. Park's decision did nothappen. It was my Guomeimei at work. But it isnot too farfetched from it ever happening. Celine Dion indefinitelycancelled all scheduled performances and tours upon discovering that herhusband is dying of cancer. She halted aprocess already in motion to reconsider her options. If you have ever driven with a lady navigatoron the passenger side, it is the female's option to re-decide on instinct. Micronesians' inability to plan is often bewailed; theywould rather just lounge on the catch of the day without worry about theprospects of tomorrow, some say. Politicalentities do show fancy consultant-written long-term plans but are unable toproject themselves farther than the requirements of the day. Shortsightedness, it is, but beyond the bewailing, I saythat it is more human to inhabit a moment's effulgent space than in competingin the race of time to be at some place to chalk up an achievement. Try rootedness in place. The value of planning is in its ability togive one the courage to care for the here-and-now by attending to itsebullience. It does not contractuallytie anyone to behave in a certain way just because a long-range"plan" is set to "law". Push islanders and watch what they do; Lino Olopai "acts" thisway naturally! Indeed, Park Geun-hye could say, "OK, we've conducted60 years of shooting wars. Let's tryanother way to relate to one another," then travels to Pyongyang sans fanfare. I wonder what Obama and the Pentagon wouldsay if that happened? Guomeimei! j'aime la vie pinoypanda2031@aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!