MSNBC offers us an update on how Casey and Anna Mae are doing. Essentially, the family has fallen apart: Jack took off, the three kids are at boarding school, and Casey’s unemployed and living off her brother. After 9 months, Anna Mae still barely knows any Chinese, and Casey’s plans for the family seem uncertain.
This is of course terrible. Keep in mind as you read, however, that the reporter’s writing has a melodramatic tone and obvious pro-American bias. Ultimately, Anna Mae is 9, kids are very adaptable, and I’m confident that when she’s older she’ll be fluent in both Mandarin and English, which will be an asset. At the same time, it is heartbreaking that she seems miserable at the moment (which is what the reporter’s writing was calculated to make us feel). I’m reminded of some of the assertions of the trial and appeal court judges; while biased, they did indicate that the Hes did not quite have their shit together and were not the greatest examples of humanity; I suppose this is coming out. It is a shame that the court proceedings took up so much of Anna Mae’s young life.
If some of you are like me, you probably receive at least a video a day in your inbox. I usually ignore most of them. They usually take too long to watch, and most of them kill brain cells.
Anyway, I know this is a little late for the American Thanksgiving holiday, but DEFINITELY check out the video above. It looks silly from the picture, but it’s both funny and clever. Enjoy.
A year ago, on a long drive, Dialectic and I were discussing the Asian American community, the goals of activist work, and narcissism. That got me thinking: What do we really want? What are we talking about when we talk about activism? Are our desires too focused on measuring up to a “white” standard? And, at this juncture, is the Asian American community acting in a narcissistic fashion?
The way I see it, we don’t know exactly what we want as a group because it is impossible for us have one unified desire, save for respect from our peers, neighbours, and fellow citizens. This is because we are individuals, from different cultural and class backgrounds. We have different ideas about identity, culture, and politics. No single person in our community can speak for every person, and it is damaging when people try to do so.
His last name was right after mine—I was doomed to sit next to him all year. Second period Physiology my senior year, right in between Mr. Baseball Star and Mr. Varsity Quarterback. I dreaded having to endure such an early class with those two. Oh, they were nice enough. They just weren’t the people I would have chosen to sit next to for the entirety of my last year of high school.
He had a good-natured smile and a laid-back California boy personality. He talked to girls with innocently flirtatious ease, confident in his ability to get away with just about anything. He poked me in class, trying to get me to smile, laugh, or even get mad—just to see what kind of reactions I had behind my poker face.
At first I was irritated by his constantly needy classroom presence.
“What’s the answer to this, Meeeeeya?”
“What did you put for the answer on this question?
“Did you get the homework? Can I see it, Meeeeeya?”
It’s too early to know the story behind this, but a series of terrible attacks have started across Mumbai in India. According to the NY Times, they attackers are focusing on Westerners:
The Mumbai police said Thursday that the attacks killed at least 101 people and wounded at least 250. Guests who had escaped the hotels told television stations that the attackers were taking hostages, singling out Americans and Britons.
Christiane Amanpour from CNN.com talks about the significance of Mumbai:
This is very, very dangerous in this part of the world. Mumbai is India’s not just gateway to the nation; it’s its economic and financial hub, and it’s its cultural hub as well, having the Bollywood and the other film production studios there.
There isn’t much information out there yet. I’m wondering about the timing–was this to send a message to the new administration, or since they’re targeting Westerners, did they purposely coordinate this attack to coincide with the American Thanksgiving holiday? We’ll find out more in the upcoming days.
Hahahahaha, this is why I don’t consider myself a “liberal” (even though most of my positions are socially liberal). Stupid, stupid children. But then, it is Carleton U!
Students drop Shinerama fundraiser for illness targeting Caucasians
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 | 6:05 PM ET
Carleton University students have decided to pull out of a Canada-wide fundraiser that provides close to $1 million a year for cystic fibrosis research, given that the disease “has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men.”
The Carleton University Students Association voted Monday night overwhelmingly in favour of choosing a new charity to support during its orientation week in September,
The foundation funds research into cystic fibrosis, a fatal, genetic disease that is most common among Caucasians. It affects mainly the lungs and digestive system, causing a build-up of thick mucus that leads to infection and inflammation.
The student council motion stated that orientation week “strives to be inclusive” and “all orientees and volunteers should feel like their fundraising efforts will serve their diverse communities.”
Nick Bergamini was the only student councillor to vote against the motion.
The NIC just released their latest global trends report. They put one out about every four years, and these reports are very well-considered. This time they’ve made an effort to include a ton of non-American expertise. I’m currently reading the Executive Summary.
US Global Trends report: Key points
Global Trends 2025, a new report written by the US National Intelligence Council (NIC) ahead of President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration, envisages a future world marked by diminished US power, dwindling resources, and more people.
The NIC, an independent government body, emphasises that its report is not about “crystal-ball gazing” but offers a range of potential futures, including the following key trends.
US DOMINANCE
The US will remain the single most important actor in 2025 but will be less dominant.
It will retain its considerable military advantages, but scientific and technological advances; the use of “irregular warfare tactics” by others; the proliferation of long-range precision weapons; and the growing use of cyber warfare attacks “increasingly will constrict US freedom of action”.
The US will still have a role to play as a “much-needed regional balancer” in the Middle East and Asia, despite the recent rise in anti-Americanism.
So basically, there was an article yesterday about a guy named In-Goo Kwak (not our 44s Kwak) who started a Mixed Martial Arts Club at his high school where he is a senior. He’s passionate about the martial arts, and he lobbied for two years before administrators would let him have this club. He finally made it a reality when they saw he was serious and professional.
My question is this: Are high schoolers too young to have an MMA club? Kids in high school fight all the time, and I wonder if it’s wise to give them tools to hurt one another. The counterargument would be that high schools have always had other martial arts like wrestling…and hockey. Also, they don’t let the kids hit each other.
Palin grabbed an enormous share of the attention, but there was a lot of serious thinking going on among other governors and would-be governors. Tim Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota and a finalist in the Republican vice-presidential sweepstakes, spent a lot of time trying to reconcile the emerging reform vs. tradition split in the party. “Our country is changing,” Pawlenty said. “And we have not done a very good job translating our values and principles, which are as true and as valid as ever, into the context and circumstances of our time.”
But before the governors could set about translating those values and principles, they had to get their heads around the extent of their party’s loss. “You cannot be a majority governing party,” Pawlenty continued, “if you lose all of the Northeast, all of the Great Lakes states, all of the West Coast, increasing numbers of Western states, increasing numbers of mid-Atlantic states, have a big deficit with women, have a big deficit with modest income voters, have a big deficit with Hispanic voters, have a big deficit with African-Americans, and expect that’s going to be a success formula for the future.”
download the new Decyplz album - FREE
get the new Notorious MSG EP
Entries (RSS)
