Long haul?

Ted asks:

Please explain “long haul” in this: “This time, they’re in town for the long haul.”

My comments:

It means that this time, they’re here to stay. They’re not leaving any time soon.

In other words, they’re settling in.

Still in other words, they’re here for the long term, instead of a short period of time.

Now, airliners talk of short haul flights and long haul flights. The short haul flight lasts less than, say, two hours. The long haul flight, on the other hand, takes more than eight hours, for example, depending on the airline you’re flying. Those in between are considered medium haul.

A trip by a Chinese airline from Beijing to Zhengzhou, or Shanghai or Hangzhou for that matter is generally considered a short haul flight, lasting less than two hours.

If you’re lucky. That is, if everything turns out all right.

Depending on the airline you’re flying and depending on the lengths of delays which, often for no good reason, are increasingly a daily occurrence, you should count yourself lucky if you arrive within eight hours of leaving home for the airport.

Anyways, the root of the long haul is the act of hauling something. If you “haul”, you pull something heavy with a continuous, steady and unceasing effort. The fishermen, for instance, are hauling in their nets, heavy with some major catches.

Long haul, therefore, suggests long distance or long time and, of course, a steady effort.

If your financial adviser tells you to invest in the stock market for the long term, for example, he asks you to keep an eye for the long haul. In other words, he doesn’t want you to leave the market even if shares are falling in prices.

In the long run, he advises, prospects will look up, as every market experiences its ebbs and flows, that is, highs and lows, ups and downs, peaks and troughs.

He has a point – but only up to a point.

Eventually, the market will turn from bearish to bullish and prices will rise. However, eventually too, they’ll drop one more time, as every market experiences its ebbs and flows, that is, highs and lows, ups and downs, peaks and troughs.

Exactly. And so what your financial adviser asks you to do is essentially to gamble on the market. And in gambling, whether it’s in Las Vegas or Wall Street, the average player eventually loses.

In Wall Street, the only ones who win are the banks and your financial adviser, who collects fees from you even in a bear market while you, even in a bull market, see your profits slashed further by inflation.

By the way, your financial adviser is always advising portfolio investments for the long term because he works for the banks, who are the only real winners at the end of the day or, um, in the long run.

Sounds confusing?

It is, otherwise you would not need to listen to the so-called financial advisers in the first place.

Anyways, let’s not bother so much with what happens with your portfolio investments for the long haul. For now, just be happy that you’ve mastered a new term.

Here are media examples of “long haul”:

1. LeBron James stayed fairly quiet when the Orlando Magic questioned his competitiveness this summer.

James and his new team presented an emphatic response Friday night.

Dwyane Wade scored 26 points in Miami’s home opener, James had 15 points and seven assists and the Heat scored the first 14 points of the second half to turn a close game into a surprisingly one-sided 96-70 victory over the Magic....

When the Heat acquired James this summer, Magic president of basketball operations Otis Smith uttered a now-infamous-in-Miami line: “I was surprised that he went. I thought he was, I guess, more of a competitor.”

They competed, all right, from start to finish.

“We heard everything Orlando had to say about us in the offseason,” James said. “It’s not like it’s satisfying. I’m not relieved, because it’s a long season. But they know we’re here for the long haul. We know they’re going to be there also, but this is a different Miami Heat team. There’s only so many words to be said. At this point, the ball has to be thrown up now.”

- For openers, Heat roll past Magic, 96-70, AP, October 29, 2010.

2. Comprehensive immigration reform might be off the legislative agenda this year. And it remains to be seen how the immigration issue will play out once the November elections are over.

But in different parts of the United States, pro-immigrant rights activists are quietly building networks and digging in for the long haul. An example of the trend is in southern New Mexico, where a grassroots gathering of immigrant advocates is coming together around a broad, common agenda.

Now more than two years old, the Task Force for Immigrant Advocacy and Services (TIAS), brings together the Colonias Development Council, American Civil Liberties Union, Catholic Charities and Avance, among other organizations and individuals, to tackle civil rights, human rights, citizenship, housing, literacy, parenting and other issues.

Growing out of forums initiated by the Southern New Mexico Community Foundation and the New Mexico Forum on Youth and Community in 2008, the overarching goal of TIAS is to promote dialogue in a time of divisive politics and create a “positive environment for migrants,” said TIAS Coordinator Alma Nava Maquitico.

Nava Maquitico, who operates a roving office throughout the southern New Mexico borderland, said TIAS is responding to an adverse political climate for immigrant communities. “Everybody is speaking about migration from the perspective of criminalization and militarization, and this really concerns us,” she added.

According to Nava Maquitico, TIAS unites its member groups around a set of seven core values. In terms of broader outreach, TIAS maintains communication with the regional Mexican Consulate and members of the New Mexico Congressional delegation, the border activist said.

Emily Carey, program coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico’s Regional Center for Border Rights, seconded many of Nava Maquitico’s concerns.

In addition to assisting prisoners at an immigrant detention facility in Dona Ana County, the Las Cruces-based Regional Center for Border Rights, which is a TIAS member organization, monitors law enforcement and gives workshops on constitutional rights to task force affiliates and local communities. Border Patrol checkpoints, law enforcement stops and the relationship of local police with immigration law enforcement are high on the list of the major issues of the day, Carey said.

“People are afraid. People are coming from families with mixed (legal) status and people are coming from communities which are small and they don’t want to draw attention to themselves,” Carey said in an interview. “Issues don’t just affect undocumented people. Our communities regardless of immigration status are affected by the erosion of civil liberties.”

- Border Activists Organize for the Long Haul, Salem-News.com, September 13, 2010.

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.