Guo Mei Mei

This is my August fool’s day valedictory. Obama, Clinton, and Bush II found August vexing. It is only birthday hoots in my family, with me at the gate and Pat (mother of daughter Andrea) on Sunday, with Andrea, my sister Jailu, daughter Kristina, and sis-in-law Marienne heading weekly rituals.

There is nothing glittery about Guo Meimei, a Beijing Film Academy grad. The 23-year model flaunted a lavish lifestyle in 2011 while claiming relationship with the Red Cross. The NGO subsequently slipped 90 percent on donations. She was a skilled but sly mistress, also a gambling addict, arrested recently for illegal online betting.

It is Ms. Guo’s imagination that attracts. She muscled willpower over the power of fear and trepidation. Global media depicts current politics of suspicion. On the MH17 crash, after a frenzy of trampled evidence to cover up accountability, The Netherland’s PM Rutte said that it now appears “fortunately that more was done after the disaster than we thought until now.” Local authorities carried out “an intensive search in the area with 800 volunteers, and there were many bodies recovered in those [first] days.”

A 300-truck convoy of humanitarian relief bound for E. Ukraine was not allowed passage by Kiev on fear that the convoy might be carrying arms for the separatist, or worst, an advanced wedge ahead of a Russian invasion. Russia delivered without formal permits. The area was not known as Kievan Rus in the past for nothing!

The U.S. found allies in foisting fear over China’s designs in its waters while it flies dangerously close to borders even as one of its U-2 like flights over Russia had to abort when it noticed land radar following its course. U.S. western Pacific pivot strategy takes the heat away from the Middle East oil flares but begs the question of why a “light on the hill” means U.S. occupying forces in Korea.

Japan recently identified Russia, DPRK, and China as threats to its national security. Shinzo Abe is the Pentagon’s darling; he got the U.S. State’s support in the contested four islands of Kiril Skyle Ostrova that Moscow took over from Imperial Japan after Potsdam and WWII.

Meanwhile, the Philippines’ maritime claim versus China regrettably showed a double-speak when its Pentagon-guided proposal suggested a three-step process for claimants: 1) a stop on any activities in the area, 2) a dialogue between claimants, 3) a final recourse to international arbitration. The Philippines recently jumped into the third step behind the apron of the U.S. Fleet and the diplomatic shield of ASEAN before the previous steps.

South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye whose political “allure” faded after the MV Sewol ferry sinking when she shed tears to apologize for the local Coast Guards’ failure to respond quickly to save lives, was asked to respond to the news that DPRK flew missiles into the East Sea (aka Sea of Japan) that went farther than previous ones in protest to the joint military maneuvers (saber rattling to DPRK) of U.S.-SoKor forces.

Park decided that it was time to scrap the joint exercises, get Pyongyang’s ear so folks in the Korean Peninsula, from Jeju to Yanbian/Mudanjiang’s Korea-in-China’s Manchuria, could cordially start talking to each other. The military heads of DPRK, SoKor, and the U.S. occupying forces would not hear of it. The four-decade annual large joint exercises (last year had two stealth jets appear) are purely for defensive reasons. Right. Track where the money goes and “defense” spending takes on a different meaning.

What I just described re President Park’s decision on Korea did not happen. It was my Guomeimei at work. But it is not too farfetched from it ever happening. Celine Dion indefinitely cancelled all scheduled performances and tours upon discovering that her husband is dying of cancer. She halted a process already in motion to reconsider her options. If I may be allowed a sexist comment, it is always a lady navigator’s option to re-decide on instinct.

Micronesians’ inability to plan is often bewailed; they would rather just lounge on the catch of the day without worry about the prospects of tomorrow, some say. Political entities show consultant-written long-term plans but are unable to project themselves farther than the requirements of the day.

Shortsightedness it is, but beyond the bewailing, I say that it is more human to inhabit a moment’s effulgent space than in competing in the race of time to be at some place and chalk up an achievement. Try rootedness in place. The value of planning is in its ability to give one the courage to care for the here-and-now by attending to its ebullience. It does not tie anyone to behave in a certain way just because a long-range “plan” is set to “law.”

Indeed, Park Geun-hye could say, “OK, we’ve conducted 60 years of shooting wars. Let’s try another way to relate to one another,” then travels to Pyongyang sans fanfare. I wonder what Obama and the Pentagon would say if that happened? Guomeimei!