The Fighting 44s

Thanks to evil_FUX for posting this excellent article.  Discuss here or in the forum.  It’s good to finally hear some good news or positive outlooks coming out of the media.  God knows that we need some encouragement after 7 years of Bush and a tanking economy.  Zakaria is right.  We can all thrive.  Billions of people leaving poverty is a good thing.

My favorite part of the article is the pro-American part:

More broadly, this is America’s great—and potentially insurmountable—strength. It remains the most open, flexible society in the world, able to absorb other people, cultures, ideas, goods, and services. The country thrives on the hunger and energy of poor immigrants. Faced with the new technologies of foreign companies, or growing markets overseas, it adapts and adjusts. When you compare this dynamism with the closed and hierarchical nations that were once superpowers, you sense that the United States is different and may not fall into the trap of becoming rich, and fat, and lazy.

Posted in Blog, Newsworthy | | Permalink

Yesterday, AsiaFest  took place at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.   I had the opportunity to run the booth for the Oregon Commission on Asian Affairs, which is the official government liaison between the Asian American community in Oregon and the governor’s office.  It was fun.  I spoke to the people about our upcoming Frank Chin event, and I was able to see many people in the community whom I haven’t seen in a while.  They had a number of really cute performances by little kids.

It’s really important to get out there and meet people.  For me, it humanizes the whole advocacy/activism thing.  You can’t really know a person’s problems or issues until you’ve conversed with them in person.  My demographic–young people with or without families–was not very well represented, but it was a lot of fun working the floor.

I think I also learned a thing or two about promotion.  The booths with the brightest and friendliest displays or games got the most action.  The only reason people came to my booth was that I was located next to the unmanned Spirit Mountain Casino display, and old ladies kept approaching me to find out when the bus left from Chinatown.  Next year I may not be so lucky with my location–they may put me next to Falun Gong (who was also there) or Asian Americans for Hillary (if she’s still running after the new president is already in office)–so it’s best to be proactive with the promotion.

Posted in Activism | | Permalink

They had an interesting video feature in the New York Times today. It’s about Hmong Hip Hop and how a certain artist named Tou Saiko Lee uses it to talk about his heritage. I’ve never really taken much of an interest in hip-hop and spoken word, but it’s pretty cool how Tou is using this to bring his Hmong community together; the after-school sessions where he teaches hip-hop looked pretty wild. Also, check out the part of the video where he raps with his grandmother (4:12). It’s a nice sounding fusion.

Along with this video feature, the New York Times also had an article on General Vang Pao, who is mentioned in the video. I haven’t been following the Vang Pao story, but it seems that things got messed up once again because of America’s involvement in SE Asia.

Posted in Blog, Newsworthy | | Permalink

This is the best interview with a political leader I’ve ever read. He makes some insightful observations on world politics and strategy, and says something very interesting about how democracy can be undermined in multiracial societies by ethnocentric voting. (This mirrors my “integral theory” or “developmental” position that democracy is not universally functional or desirable but is dependent on a population’s moral/cognitive mode.) READ THIS interview! (Special thanks to Maogirl for pointing it out.)

SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH SINGAPORE’S LEE KUAN YEW
“It’s Stupid to be Afraid”

Singapore’s first-ever prime minister, long-time government head and current political mentor Lee Kuan Yew talks about Asia’s rise to economic power, China’s ambitions and the West’s chances of staying competitive.

The elder statesman Lee: “We run a meritocracy.”

SPIEGEL: The political and economic center of gravity is moving from the West towards the East. Is Asia becoming the dominant political and economic force in this century?

Mr. Lee: I wouldn’t say it’s the dominant force. What is gradually happening is the restoration of the world balance to what it was in the early 19th century or late 18th century when China and India together were responsible for more than 40 percent of world GDP. With those two countries becoming part of the globalized trading world, they are going to go back to approximately the level of world GDP that they previously occupied. But that doesn’t make them the superpowers of the world.

Posted in Newsworthy, Politics | | Permalink

I’m going to be proactive and call it: I think the race is over for Hillary Clinton. She lost North Carolina by a huge margin, and she won Indiana by only a razor thin margin, enabling Obama to increase his lead in the pledged delegate count. George McGovern called for her to quit yesterday, and Al Sharpton called for the same today. I heard on the radio that superdelegates are refusing to meet with her and Bill, while they are eagerly meeting with Obama. Obama picks up new superdelegates every day. Hillary loaned her own campaign another $6 million for a lump sum loan total of $11 million out of her own pocket. She’s seriously strapped for cash.

It’s done. Over. Jaehwan is calling it right now–Obama is the Democratic nominee of 2008. There is no way the math works out; she’s going down. The negative campaigning was exactly what the country did not want, and we are letting her know through our votes and our declining contributions to her campaign. Obama is starting to act like the new nominee by challenging McCain, and I think it’s a good move on his part.

Posted in Blog, Politics | | Permalink

Interesting article by Thomas Friedman of the New York Times.

He writes about politicians being straight with the people.  It’s tangentially related to my last post.  For a long time now, Friedman has been talking about raising the gas tax in order to encourage more investment in green energy technologies, and his theory is that the current energy crisis is a result of our failure to act when we should have.  He must be absolutely fuming at Hillary’s suggestion of a gas tax “holiday.”  All of us should be fuming.

One interesting quote I found was here:

We are not as powerful as we used to be because over the past three decades, the Asian values of our parents’ generation — work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means — have given way to subprime values: “You can have the American dream — a house — with no money down and no payments for two years.”

“Asian values?”  I know he meant it as a compliment, but in his parents’ generation, Inouye was denied the Medal of Honor because he wasn’t white enough.  Anyway…I know what he’s trying to say.

Posted in Newsworthy | | Permalink

Spotted in today’s New York Times: “An Auction of New Chinese Art Leaves Disjointed Noses In Its Wake by David Barboza.”

SHANGHAI — Sotheby’s auction house called it the “most important collection of contemporary Chinese art to ever come to market” — some 200 works by some of China’s hottest names.

And when the first half of the trove, called the Estella Collection, went on the block in April in Hong Kong, it brought in $18 million and set some record prices for artists, like $6 million for a canvas by the Chinese painter Zhang Xiaogang.

But the sale of the works has stirred indignation among many of the artists and their dealers and some curators.

Those artists and curators say that as the collection was being formed, they were duped into thinking that a rich Westerner was putting together a permanent collection and would eventually donate some of the works to leading museums. (Read rest of Times article.)

I read the article and came to the conclusion that the real headline should be: “The Colonial Raping and Pillaging Never Ends.”

Posted in Blog | | Permalink

I saw this interesting article in the Washington Post about how presidential candidates since the days of William Henry Harrison have tried to make themselves seem like the common man. It’s especially interesting for me since I’m reading a book on Abraham Lincoln, our original “log cabin” president.

The article says:

Identifying with the common man has been a requisite in presidential elections for almost two centuries. But the stakes are especially high in a race largely defined by an economic crisis, and campaign experts say the candidates have gone especially far in their appeals.

In the past six weeks, Clinton hammered down a shot of Crown Royal whiskey — not necessarily the first choice of the workingman — and chased it with a beer. Obama visited a Pennsylvania sports bar and sampled a Yuengling after making sure it wasn’t “some designer beer.” Clinton told stories about learning to shoot behind the cottage her grandfather built. Obama went bowling.

The article also says:

Posted in Activism, Newsworthy, Politics | | Permalink

Just saw this article on BBC. He too has darker hair than Jim Sturgess.

Also see Xian’s post.

Posted in Blog | | Permalink

The Washington Post today has yet another article about how the population of Japan is declining.  They cover this ongoing story well.  A few years ago, they had another article about how schools in rural Japan were closing because there weren’t enough kids to fill them. 

The numbers are frightening:

Japan, now the world’s second-largest economy, will lose 70 percent of its workforce by 2050 and economic growth will slow to zero, according to a report this year by the nonprofit Japan Center for Economic Research.

Population shrinkage began three years ago and is gathering pace. Within 50 years, the population, now 127 million, will fall by a third, the government projects. Within a century, two-thirds of the population will be gone.

The Japanese population is actually shrinking.  Without a new crop of young people, not only will there not be enough hands to get the work done on a large scale, but there will also be less innovation.  There will also be fewer new ideas moving around.  The country will also be held back by the need for workers to care for the elderly. 

It’s also sad for the elderly:

Posted in Blog, Newsworthy | | Permalink