Check out an exclusive guest post I did for GoAbroad.com
It’s entitled “Speaking Spandarish,” Coffeepot Cooking & Dim Sum Dating as a Jamaican in China! Leave a comment, tweet, like or tell a friend!
Check out an exclusive guest post I did for GoAbroad.com
It’s entitled “Speaking Spandarish,” Coffeepot Cooking & Dim Sum Dating as a Jamaican in China! Leave a comment, tweet, like or tell a friend!
So, I’m putting all the pieces together to make 2012 a great year! If you’re on my PassionProfit.com subscriber list, you’re receiving one my newsletters. You can sign up to my mailing lists here. The “Achievable Freedom” concept essentially encourages you to create the life you want by acting on five freedoms:
1. The freedom to live on purpose.
2. The freedom to prosper.
3. The freedom to escape.
4. The freedom to love honestly, and
5. The freedom to age less.
The Jamaican in China blog you’re reading represents the “freedom to escape” component of the Achievable Freedom message, but also much more. The unexpected juxtaposition of the storyline of a Jamaican in China is a metaphor for the freedom to roam, the freedom to step outside the box of conventional thinking and lifestyle; the freedom to challenge boundaries; the freedom to overturn stereotypes. It’s the tried and true “fish out of water” theme of many successful hollywood movies. However, it’s not all about fun and games. It’s not intended to be just an entertaining read. My goal is to offer inspiration for you to act on any or all of the five freedoms.
So, there’s really no specific point to this little rant, except to say that as we move forward, I hope that you enjoy my adventures, and use them as a source of empowerment to create your own freedom in 2012 and beyond!
p.s. Oh, and by the way, as you know, I’m currently in New York City. However, it’s getting warmer here, and I’ve promised myself that I’ll be going outside more often. In fact, later today I’ll be hanging out with my friend, Ken. Ken was the fellow who introduced me to Saipan all those years ago! So, stay tuned for some Jamaican in New York excitement!
I’ve made a decision to get out of the house more (it’s really not that cold here in New York, relatively speaking). So, yesterday, I hung out in downtown Manhattan with veteran film actor Dan Shor. Yes, THAT Dan Shor of Tron movie fame. So, me and Dan were shooting the breeze in an Indian restaurant, and, um, what’s that? Who me? Casually dropping names in my blog to inflate my own importance and impress you with my circle of friends? Oh, come on! I’d NEVER do a shallow thing like that!
But, just in case you don’t know who Dan Shor is, here’s an excerpt from the wikipedia page on him:
“Shor’s acting credits include Air Force One, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Tron , Red Rock West, and John Huston’s Wise Blood. Television films and mini-series include Friendly Fire, Elvis and the Colonel and The Blue and the Gray (for which Shor won a People’s Choice Award). He was a series regular on Cagney and Lacey and several other television series as well as numerous guest star appearances including a Ferengi doctor on Star Trek: The Next Generation, a role he would reprise seven years later on Star Trek: Voyager. In 1983, Shor starred in the band Kansas’ music video “Fight Fire With Fire” and made appearances in their “Everybody’s My Friend” video. Stage appearances in Los Angeles and San Diego have garnered Shor eight Drama-Logue and LA Weekly performance awards.”
Now, apparently, there’s a whole parallel universe of Tron movie fanatics and others from his fan club whose love of Dan Shor’s appearance in the role of Ram in the original Tron prompted the producers to reprise his role in the recent 2011 sequel!
Anyway, you might be wondering how we met. Like me, Dan escaped from America a few years ago to live on a tropical island in the Pacific, and, you guessed it: we met while he was on Saipan back in 2006! It’s a small island! He was getting into directing at the time, and I wrote an article on him for the Saipan Tribune, and recently helped him re-issue the dvd for Looking for America, the pilot he produced and directed for a Saipan-based television series he envisioned.
Dan left Saipan and returned to New York shortly after we met, but we’ve kept in touch, and yesterday, finally had a chance to spend a few hours reminiscing about Saipan, China, acting, directing and life abroad and other, um, man stuff!
He’s doing a lot more diverse types of directing now through his company, Shodavision.
Dan as Ram in the movie Tron
The DVD, Looking for America, produced by Dan Shor’s Shodavision (also available on Amazon), and also featuring Dan as a Russian bar owner!
Dan and filmmaker Ben Salas back on Saipan back in the day!
Dan Shor in New York, with the Jamaican in China New York for now!
A few people have stumbled upon my hiphopbiz.com website while searching for “How to start a digital record label.” So, for those searching to make 2012 their year to follow their Hip Hop or other music industry passion, I’ll direct you to an essay I wrote entitled “The Record Label of the Future” which is included in The Hip Hop Entrepreneur Record Label Business plan. Hope this proves helpful
Here’s what someone said about the information contained:
“I bought your business plan when I realized I had an interested investor and it made me do something I’d never done before. FLESH OUT ALL THE DETAILS! I haven’t even finished the plan and have gotten the a-ok on the finances! 6 figures! My plan is edgy so I had to alter a couple things but it was a great template. The stats you found fit our objectives exactly! They were up to date and cited with references. As I sit here chunking out the last few details and financial report (and Yes I used that calculator feature at least 20 times today), I’m here to say there is no equal for your business plan. Keep your fingers crossed, its time for me to save hip-hop!” — -Sir (formerly Sir Reigns)
Here’s a question I answered one of my newsletters
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Section 3: Freedom to Escape: Saving money???
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WINSTON THE DEBUNKER IN TAIWAN ASKS: Btw, in your interview, you said that when you first started running your own business, you had no savings to depend on. But if you were a civil engineer with a professional salary for 7 years, wouldn’t you have a huge savings account from such a salary? I don’t get it. I’m able to save money even with a small salary, by simply learning to not waste money, and using budgeting apps from sites such as SoFi.
THE SHORT ANSWER:
Great question. I absolutely believe this is a cultural thing. Living on Saipan, dating girls, speaking with fellows who also had girlfriends/wives, and also when was writing Chicken Feathers & Garlic Skin: Diary of a Chinese Garment Factory Girl on Saipan, with Chun Yu Wang, I learned of many of the girls who were earning $3.00/hour who had been working on Saipan for years and who had bank account balances of $70,000, $80,000 and more!
At the same time, what I learned when I was involved in network marketing in the US, was that many of the doctors and lawyers and engineers who were striving for success, were in debt up to their ears, paying off car notes and mortgages and living the “American Dream” living from paycheck to paycheck. The situation to even obtain a mortgage or some sort of loan to improve our lives also depends largely on the banks and lending institutions that are supposed to be helpful with it. While most processes can generally be cumbersome, the exasperating part is that taking out a loan can even go to the point of having to contact a credit report lawyer for report falsification cases. The mental burden of drowning in all of this can really become problematic.
That’s why (or, at least one reason why) I’m not impressed by fancy cars, big houses and so-called status. In America, when you see someone “richer” than you, it simply means in most cases, that they’re simply living at a richer level of debt! Most of these people living paycheck to paycheck and living with high amounts of debt to keep up the image of “living the American Dream” won’t even look into helpful aids such as a debt consolidation calculator to see if they’re even able to get out of debt, they keep piling more on.
Donald Trump declared bankruptcy a few years ago. Sears is going out of business. American Airlines is in Chapter 11. The whole financial system and society are founded on consumerism and debt.
Now, being the minimalist I am, I don’t consider myself party to the whole immediate gratification, buy-all-you-can mindset. And I was fortunate enough to get a scholarship to Columbia, so I didn’t have any school loans to pay once I graduated. However, I did spend practically every penny in my attempt to grow my business (financing music videos, traveling to music industry conventions, etc.) in an effort to free myself from corporate America.
So, regarding saving money:
1. It’s easier for people to save if they dont’ have a business to bootstrap and finance.
2. When I have it, I tend to give it away to friends/family.
3. I believe the saving esthetic is a cultural thing and is prevalent in other cultures Asian (or specifically, from my experience, Chinese) culture, and of course, in the frugal, simpler societies and lifestyle that my grandmother in Jamaica lived, for example. (Unfortunately, I didn’t pick up that particular talent or gene when I lived with her….:-) )
4. Saving can be made much easier by using a reputable bank or credit union. My friend told me that he was using North Coast Credit Union which made it easier for him to save money because he was able to choose which savings account would work best for him, and he was able to create different accounts for each thing he was saving for. He claims that really helped him with saving because he wasn’t tempted to spend that money if he saw what he was supposed to be saving for.
In other words, saving can be done. It’s just not that easy, especially in a consumerist, debt-leveraged society! However, if you live somewhere like America, saving money is made much easier with the help of banks and saving plans.
To listen to the interview of me that Winston is referring to, visit www.waltgoodridge.com/interviews then find, “KY Show Interview”
The Chinese year 4710 begins on Jan. 23, 2012. Happy New Year 新年快乐 (Xīnnián kuàilè) to all my friends in China! This time last year, I was on the island of Hainan, People’s Republic of China!
Last year this time
To a dear friend who is experiencing some challenges through the actions of individuals who seem intent on orchestrating her demise:
In the perfect order and balance of this universe, of ours, my friend, there is absolutely, positively no way that your good deeds, your pure heart, your noble intentions, your generosity, your honesty, your empathy, and your sincere appreciation of the humanity and value in others can ever be “rewarded” with the success of others who plot your demise.
Every apparent block to your forward progress exists in apparency only because of your forgetting that we live in a friendly, supportive universe, all things work towards your good, and obstructions are deliberately placed in your path to encourage you to stretch and climb ever higher to see above, around and beyond them and make the effort to overcome them in order to assume your rightful, destined place in the unfolding of the divine plan of the planet of which you are an integral player.
Based on what I know to be true about you, know that you have greater forces at the ready, waiting to lift you past this. Remain above the fray.
Your tormenter is not in your league.
Stay strong.
Your friend, Walt
I’ve sold a lot of books since I began writing in 1992. Several years ago, I computed that I’d sold close to 3/4 of million dollars in books. And while my passion for writing and sharing information has not waned, and while there’s still a thrill about receiving a check in the mail, or that familiar email notification of a sale, the difference is that the sale of the first copy of a new book doesn’t have the same first time feel it once did.
That changed a few days ago when I made my first sale of Jamaican in China: Guess Who’s Coming to Dim Sum on the Nook platform! I couldn’t quite put my finger on why it felt a little different. After all, I’d already done a somewhat similar book with Jamaican on Saipan. I’ve also sold Nook (and Kindle) copies of other books. So, why was this sale any different?
Here’s what a friend of mine said about the book: “It’s like a new genre of ‘reality travel guide!” It’s got adventure, danger, mystery, humor and romance just like those fictional stories set in real destinations, except yours is actually real life, with the photos to prove it, AND I can still learn a lot about the country, too!”
She added that it showed that the purchaser had a more personal interest in me. She suggested that they didn’t necessarily buy it to learn how to start a business, or launch a website, or to learn something for their benefit, but to learn about me, as an individual.
That was really cool! If true, I guess it might explain in part why that first sale felt a little different. I agree that there’s more of me in this book than any previous. I’ve taken more chances and revealed more about who I think I am. However, I’m still not quite sure if that’s the reason, but something about having my blog adventures occupying someone’s Nook e-reader felt a little different. What’s your opinion? Why would this sale be any different from those before? In any event, it’s reason to celebrate. Break open the sparkling apple cider, and time for lunch, perhaps, at my favorite vegetarian spot here in New York! See you later!
Here’s the conclusion of Jamaican in China: Guess Who’s Coming to Dim Sum, inspired by GoAbroad.com’s “Why Do I go Abroad?” Contest:
[BEGIN]
Well, that’s my story! And I’m sticking to it! I really had an absolutely, positively, wonderful and life-changing time being Jamaican in China, Singapore and Laos, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it.
In addition, I hope you got something much more from Jamaican in China than just an entertaining read. I hope it expanded your awareness and consciousness in some small way. Wherever in this world you may call “home,” (even if you already live in China), I hope it gave you a little peek into a reality that you might not have otherwise been aware of. I hope it showed you people, places and possibilities in a way that affects how you see yourself, your world, and your place, role and identity within it. I hope you can see a little bit higher above and a little bit further beyond the misconceptions and fears that often flavor our perception of “others” and those we consider “not like us.” The fact is, we are and have been manipulated to live in such fear.
It seems an unavoidable outcome of this manipulation, and the fractionalized, brainwashed society that we live in as a result, that people are taught to, and thus become inclined to identify and separate themselves according to arbitrary and meaningless national, ethnic, racial and religious lines. We are taught to fear these supposed differences and thus we perceive “others” who are “not like us” as threats to our individual and/or collective identity, control, autonomy and survival. This fear leads to a false sense of elitism, then to bias, prejudice, preferential treatment, discrimination, and attacks of psychological, verbal and even physical nature.
This is all a construct. It is not natural. We are not wired to fear, attack and ostracize others because of these differences. This is all learned behavior. If you don’t believe me, then simply watch young children–before they’ve been brainwashed–playing with each other in harmony if you wish to observe the instinctive, communal, inclusive, welcoming “wiring” that we are born with. Yes, something has been taken from us.
As the Occupy Movement in the states, as well as on-going protests worldwide reveal, people are ready for a change of the existing paradigm of manipulation, fear and the strategy of divide, conquer and exploit. People are agitating for change. They want to take that thing back– that thing that has been taken from our natural wiring. It can be done. It is being done!
The internet and our technological age makes possible the reality of life without borders and other arbitrary lines that separate humanity. The plethora of internet and tv bundles that has become accessible to almost every household in many countries worldwide has led to a sort of informational revolution which can be used to usher mankind towards the right knowledge. It can be used to encourage the sort of boundary-breaking, limitless, expansive and inclusive thought and action that will unite and free us. Jamaican in China is just one of many real-life adventures which offer alternative ways to be, think and act in the pursuit of such freedom.
Now, it may be presumptuous or naive of me to hope and believe that my little nomad adventure, and a relatively obscure book about it all can somehow contribute to the massive paradigm shift in consciousness for which the world yearns, and for which it now seems poised. However, I’ll share with you a thought that caught my eye some time ago. It’s a truth with which I resonate profoundly, and it represents an ideal to which my life (and thus this 6 month chronicle of my life) is a testament.
“To create a just, sustainable world, nothing is more important than being able to think and act across borders. Whether our passion is protecting the biosphere or preventing war, we will succeed only if we have the passion and courage to cross the national, ideological, ethnic, and religious borders of our time.” –Mark Gerzon, author of Leaders without Borders.
These borders are all arbitrary lines. They do not exist in reality. They are all learned and superimposed upon the now fragmented minds and thinking of individuals who should instead be thinking and acting as a global community on a single planet.
In my naiveté, I believe that Jamaican in China has the power to plant the seed of a thought about “others” who are “not like us” that says “Perhaps things are not as I’ve been led to believe. Perhaps these people are not my enemies. How do I know? Well, there’s this Jamaican guy who went all the way to China, and let me tell you what he experienced….!”
And with the single click of button or a tweet of technology, you can use this book to change someone else’s perspective as well. It only takes one.
There’s more of a global ideological shift going on than we may realize. The “social networking” paradigm which has existed for millennia has now been dramatically enhanced by the Internet. It has changed everything. Videos go viral, protests proliferate, movements gain momentum, and individuals are impacted in meaningful ways by a “tweet” or a “like” or a “friend” an upload, or by a single post in a forum often by a single individual on a single gadget, Nook, Kindle or keyboard. Yes, my friend, keystrokes and a click can change the world!
It is from this place of sincere respect for the power of communication in general, enhanced by the potential of the internet in particular, that I travel abroad, write, blog and “share what I know so that others may grow.” I hope you will fulfill my humble request to use my adventure to communicate some new possibilities to at least one other person somewhere else across the arbitrary, imaginary (and slowly dissolving) lines that seek to divide us.
If you are reading this on a Nook, Kindle, iPad or any e-reader, you have the ability in most cases to share this book electronically with others. I encourage you to do so. Feel free! Please share a link or a like or a tweet with someone in your world, and thanks for being part of my adventure!
To share my borderless world, order and download Jamaican in China: GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DIM SUM in Kindle, Nook and pdf ebook formats CLICK HERE
2018 addendum: Also, please visit and subscribe to the Jamaican in China Youtube channel at
https://www.youtube.com/JamaicaninChina
Okay. You know I’ve been busy converting a few of my books to Kindle and Nook formats. Well, I’ve finally finished all the conversions I’ll do for now, and will next focus on marketing them. Meanwhile, however, I’ll give you an update.
First of all, I’m still in New York city. It’s cold, but not oppressively so, thanks to global warming! In creating the Kindle/Nook edition of Jamaican in China: Guess Who’s Coming to Dim Sum, I had a chance to review and reminisce about my entire 2011 trip to China. Those were some good times. I see a return trip in the stars for 2012! So, stay tuned.
So, what’s life like in New York? Well, hmmm. Let’s see. What can I show you that gives the best synopsis of things here in the Big Apple? I know! Check this out. Here’s a sign, a huge sign right off the highway near the apartment I’m currently staying. I think it adequately reflects the mood here.
Nothing like a focus on fear and catastrophe to get the new year rolling off to a good start…. and then off a cliff!
CORRECTION: After doing a test-launch of the new book on Amazon’s site, I discovered that due to the huge file size of this book Amazon prevents me from selling it at $0.99 as originally intended. Even splitting it into two volumes doesn’t work. Therefore, the lowest price possible $2.99!
Now available for Kindle
Now available for Nook (in two parts)!
Don’t have a Kindle or Nook?: order regular, ol’ ebook at a Kindle price and download immediately!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jamaican in China: Guess Who’s Coming to Dim Sum, available NOW!! (“Like” me on facebook to be notified of updates!)
January 1, 2012–China: Join nomadpreneur, minimalist, vegan, author Walt F.J. Goodridge as he occupies Justin Bieber’s Beijing, Selena Gomez’ Shanghai, Rebecca Black’s Xishuangbanna, Kardashian’s Kunming, and Herman Cain’s Hainan, proving–as the consummate marketer–that he’s not above throwing in the top ranked keyword search terms in his press releases in order to attract attention for his already compelling blog to book release, Jamaican in China: Guess Who’s Coming to Dim Sum
Jamaican in China: Guess Who’s Coming to Dim Sum is a humorous, hellacious, insightful, instructional, fun, fascinating, yet oddly functional all-in-one reality show travel guide blog book lifestyle primer chronicling Goodridge’s adventures in China, Laos, Singapore and Saipan. You can visit his award-nominated blog’s archives, but THE BOOK….ahhh! The BOOK, my friends is where the action is! It’s even better than the blog! Really!
In the book, you get what is essentially a “Behind the Scenes” “Bloopers” and “The Making of The Jamaican in China blog” all rolled into one, including:
•Over 600 full-color, many never-before-published photographs! That’s right, 635 in all!!
• Edited and expanded blog posts
• Deleted scenes & out-takes too controversial for the blog
• Commentary from Walt’s circle of friends, advisors and enemies
• Dating advice from Chinese men AND women!
• “Grown-ups only” material
• The full “Coming Black to Asia/Travelling While Black” Manifesto
• The secret origins of Walt’s nomad-inspired Coffeepot Cookbook!
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
Yes, there’s something to APPEAL to everyone! Walt is a Jamaican-born, US University-schooled, Spanish speaking, single, minimalist, vegan, nomad bachelor in China who quotes Willie Nelson, Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt and Bob Marley in his blog as he offers survivalist cooking tips and dating strategies, fights crime and promotes freedom, dates cross-culturally, crossing borders, cracking stereotypes, breaking hearts, winning friends and influencing people (meeting fellow travelers from Norway, Russia, Myanmar, Guyana, Italy), living and spreading his philosophy of “freedom, function and fun” while making money as a nomadpreneur throughout Asia, while motivating and inspiring others through his prose, poetry and presence to do the same!” It doesn’t get more widespread in appeal than this! If you want a slice of this cultural pie, then why not look at asia travel as well? You’ll be full up with amazing sites and sounds in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
What’s even better (for selling books, that is) is that if you take this stuff too seriously, there’s bound to be something offensive for just about everyone, too:
• Yes, his thoughts on “Germ Theory in China” may offend you if you’re Chinese!
• His thing for interracial dating may offend a few skinheads!
• His “How to Meet Girls in Beijing” may offend feminists!
• His take on “Traveling While Black” may offend entire continents of people!
• And even the world’s innocent little children have something to be offended about with his irreverent parody of Dr Seuss’ beloved and iconic Cat in the Hat! (To answer your question: “Um, no, nothing is sacred!)
So, if you’ve ever asked yourself…
“Can a single, minimalist, vegan, Jamaican author and nomadpreneur escape the rat race, reinvent his life, live true to himself, find love, happiness, organic food, but more importantly, an apartment with a kitchen, sunshine and a wi-fi connection in China without paying the ultimate price…the foreigner’s price?”
(and who among us hasn’t asked ourselves that at some point in our lives? Admit it.)
…then you can NOW discover the full, potent, unadulterated, undiluted, non-dairy, wheat & gluten-free answer for yourself in the Nookified and Kindleized edition of Guess Who’s Coming to Dim Sum: The Jamaican in China!! and own a copy on your Kindle (or Nook) for ever and ever and to lend freely to friends and family!
IMPORTANT: To help Guess Who’s Coming to Dim Sum break into the Amazon Kindle bestseller charts, we need to have as many sales as possible on the SAME DAY! So, please share this with as many people as possible, and do your budget planning to have your $2.99 ready to place your order within the 24 hours of January 1, 2012!!
Here’s a little preview of some of the fun:
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Available for your new e-reader! (Including Kindles, Nooks and through Smashwords! Join the list using the form on the left, or simply “like” me on the facebook page to the right, to be notified of future updates!
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Click on image to watch a this video filmed by Chinese workers inside an actual garment factory/sweatshop:
“If you happen to be in the United States, you don’t have to go all the way to third world countries [or to China] to find the factories commonly referred to as ‘sweatshops.’ As recently as about 30 months ago, garment factories were operating right on US soil in….” Thus began my answer to a question posed recently on Yahoo Answers.
A visitor to the Yahoo site asked, “What do modern day sweatshops look like? The new Kardashian controversy is, in some sense, helping to turn many people’s attention to the ongoing situation that occurs all over the world.
I was able to do my own part in increasing awareness through being the “as told to” author of Chicken Feathers & Garlic Skin: Diary of a Chinese Garment Factory Girl by Chun Yu Wang… a book which has been praised as insightful and revealing even by those in positions of oversight at the time, but who had no idea of the actual conditions inside such factories.
The former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs, during the Bush administration, offered this after reading the book:
Chicken Feathers takes us inside a world that was almost impossible to understand from the outside. This book is a great public service, but a great read as well.”–David B. Cohen, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs
Angelo Villagomez, the Saipan Blogger, offered this:
“…It is a story that deserved to be told and shines a light on a situation that should never have been allowed on American soil.”
In doing my research for this book, I compiled and collected photographs, videos and interviews which could prove quite insightful, and even shocking to those who are now being brought into the discussion–a discussion which has been ongoing for decades.
If you’d really like to learn more, first check out Chicken Feathers and Garlic Skin
Also available in Spanish
Order in your favorite format:
Read more about the author and view/download videos/interviews at https://www.saipanfactorygirl.com HERE
Read facts about the modern day garment factory era in the US HERE
Read my Yahoo Answers response HERE