User:Raiolu

Hello to one and all, I'm Raiolu. I've been a Wikipedia user since 2003 but I spend most of my time here reading articles like most people. I only begun editing 2 years back under different monikers and my contributions are still very insignificant. Still, I hope to contribute more in the future. If you have any comments and/or complaints, please do so at my talk page. Thank You.

Views on Wikipedia
Wikipedia is really a treasure trove of knowledge, albeit sometimes it can be used to propagate a certain individual's or group's agenda. My hope is that Wikipedia will truly stay as a free and neutral encyclopedia, and state the facts and not just certain ideas and points of view.

Reading
As Wikipedia has the widest range of articles ever imagined, I spend many hours reading up on various subjects, be it as geeky as Politics, History or Geography, to some things which form an important part of our lives including the Environment, Natural Disasters or even Transportation, especially Civil Aviation and Rail Transportation. I am also an avid fan of Mobile Suit Gundam (from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED onwards) as well as Valkyria Chronicles and its sequels.

Editing and Contributions
I spend my editing time mostly on updating the Granado Espada article, constantly updating server version changes and the addition of new content. I also try my best to ensure that the language used in the article is error-free and grammatically correct.

Positions on the "China" naming dispute
I have made a separate subpage on this topic to prevent my user page from being too cluttered. See here. Any discussion related to this issue should also be done at this subpage's talk page.

Travel
Traveling has become an important part of my life. I've both been the consumer and the producer of travel products, and my dream is to step foot into every country or territory that exists today. Seeing how other people go about their daily lives, the architecture and local culture is really my main goal of traveling.

Languages
I cannot claim to be a linguist, since I've only have proper grasp of three, but to communicate effectively when traveling, I believe in learning bits and pieces of the local language or dialect will really help in a foreign land. My short-term goal now is to learn how to speak and write Japanese at an almost-native level, and start on Korean soon after. One might say that if all of humanity can speak one language (as described by the Tower of Babel), then humanity can truly be united. Of course, a language understood all over the world might be convenient, but won't it take out the diversity, uniqueness and the fun of learning the language of one another?

Politics
It might seem to be a boring or taboo subject to many, especially those who live in authoritarian states, but I believe that awareness about politics, especially about one's rights and duties, and of the issues that affect the politics of the country or territory will allow an individual to truly participate in politics and have a voice in national decision-making. I believe that a government or regime can only be legitimate and representative of the people it governs if regular, competitive and free elections with secret ballot take place. To me, all present political systems are bad, but democracy is still the best choice among all of these horrible systems since it provides the largest extent of political participation to the common person.