Asian American civil rights pioneer Fred Korematsu, who challenged the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II, died Wednesday of respiratory failure.
Korematsu's conviction for violating the presidential order that authorized the internment of Japanese Americans is a landmark case in constitutional law and Asian American history.
Posted by harry at 9:43 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Asian American civil rights pioneer Fred Korematsu, who challenged the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II, died Wednesday of respiratory failure.
Korematsu's conviction for violating the presidential order that authorized the internment of Japanese Americans is a landmark case in constitutional law and Asian American history.
Posted by harry at 9:43 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Asian American civil rights pioneer Fred Korematsu, who challenged the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II, died Wednesday of respiratory failure.
Korematsu's conviction for violating the presidential order that authorized the internment of Japanese Americans is a landmark case in constitutional law and Asian American history.
Posted by harry at 9:43 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
There was a story about a college student who writes fortune cookie fortunes in USA Today.
Not the most notable story -except that I think the reporters are geniuses. GENIUSES! Why? Because I once spent two days trying to track down fortune cookie writers and came up with NADA.
A cute story, I thought. It was actually my friend's idea --interview the writers of those clever 'Confucious say' aphorisms. Find out the inspiration for those little strips that may be taken out with the chicken bones, or might be carried around in a wallet for years and years.
My favorite fortune of all time is "He loves you as much as he can, but he does not love you very much." Brilliant! I was only in high school at the time, but that little phrase basically summed up my love life to that point and for many years to come. (In fact, they wrote a best selling book based on that very idea, called, "He's just not that into you.")
Anyway, we all know that fortune cookies were invented here in the States, probably in San Francisco (there's lots of different versions of how they got invented; some say for little treats at the Golden Gate Park tea garden) --which makes it the quintessential Asian American food. Sort of.
So I called up the fortune cookie companies in the Bay area to track down those wise writers. Can't be that hard, right? Wrong. No one seems to know. Most said they just got the fortunes from the printers; the printers were the ones who had the templates and they just ran them off.
So I called the printers. "You can say anything you want!" they told me. "No, I don't want to print the fortunes, I just want to know where they came from," I tried to explain. They didn't speak much english. I cursed myself for not actually learning anything in Chinese school. They weren't interested in bridging the language gap since didn't I just say I wasn't a customer?
I called another printer. "We get them from the fortune cookie factory," the phone answerer told me.
Finally I called a fortune cookie factory who said that I should just come down and speak to the owner. he'd tell me everything I want to know.
So I trundled off to Chinatown, to an alley I never noticed was there. (Let's face it, there are much better places for Chinese food and Chinese shopping than tourist-choked Chinatown.) I find the factory --a machine that squirts batter onto round griddles that are slowly rotating like a merry-go-round. Women sit and pull off the hot flats of batter, and just as fast as you can blink, fold in a fortune to create the crescents we're all so familiar with.
I grab a finished cookie. It's terribly hot, I can't hold onto it and have to drop it back into the barrel. The bare-handed women smile and shake their heads at my patheticness.
I inquire after the owner, a gruff old man who tells me most of the fortunes were written by an old man, now dead. At least, I think that's what he said. Again with the damnation of ineffective Chinese school (which wouldn't have helped me anyway, since this is Cantonese land and I'm a Mandarin kind of girl.)
Anyone writing that's still alive? I ask. He shrugs and walks away. He's done with me.
One of the old ladies gives me a cookie. I don't take her picture because a hand-scrawled sign says, "photos $5. video $15." A constant stream of tourists has come in and bought big bags of cookies. I retreat, in defeat. I don't even remember what my fortune said.
But as I walked away I started thinking that maybe it's better to retain the mystery of where those sometimes trite, sometimes profound little prophesies originate. I liked picturing an old man who amused himself with his often little jokes and puns and jabs and insight. I considered making a short documentary about the quest to find the fortune writer.
Until now. Now I know it's some girl at San Jose State who wants to be a realtor, keeps it gender neutral, and never mentions God. Damn USA Today. Maybe they aren't so genius, after all.
Posted by jennifer at 5:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
There was a story about a college student who writes fortune cookie fortunes in USA Today.
Not the most notable story -except that I think the reporters are geniuses. GENIUSES! Why? Because I once spent two days trying to track down fortune cookie writers and came up with NADA.
A cute story, I thought. It was actually my friend's idea --interview the writers of those clever 'Confucious say' aphorisms. Find out the inspiration for those little strips that may be taken out with the chicken bones, or might be carried around in a wallet for years and years.
My favorite fortune of all time is "He loves you as much as he can, but he does not love you very much." Brilliant! I was only in high school at the time, but that little phrase basically summed up my love life to that point and for many years to come. (In fact, they wrote a best selling book based on that very idea, called, "He's just not that into you.")
Anyway, we all know that fortune cookies were invented here in the States, probably in San Francisco (there's lots of different versions of how they got invented; some say for little treats at the Golden Gate Park tea garden) --which makes it the quintessential Asian American food. Sort of.
So I called up the fortune cookie companies in the Bay area to track down those wise writers. Can't be that hard, right? Wrong. No one seems to know. Most said they just got the fortunes from the printers; the printers were the ones who had the templates and they just ran them off.
So I called the printers. "You can say anything you want!" they told me. "No, I don't want to print the fortunes, I just want to know where they came from," I tried to explain. They didn't speak much english. I cursed myself for not actually learning anything in Chinese school. They weren't interested in bridging the language gap since didn't I just say I wasn't a customer?
I called another printer. "We get them from the fortune cookie factory," the phone answerer told me.
Finally I called a fortune cookie factory who said that I should just come down and speak to the owner. he'd tell me everything I want to know.
So I trundled off to Chinatown, to an alley I never noticed was there. (Let's face it, there are much better places for Chinese food and Chinese shopping than tourist-choked Chinatown.) I find the factory --a machine that squirts batter onto round griddles that are slowly rotating like a merry-go-round. Women sit and pull off the hot flats of batter, and just as fast as you can blink, fold in a fortune to create the crescents we're all so familiar with.
I grab a finished cookie. It's terribly hot, I can't hold onto it and have to drop it back into the barrel. The bare-handed women smile and shake their heads at my patheticness.
I inquire after the owner, a gruff old man who tells me most of the fortunes were written by an old man, now dead. At least, I think that's what he said. Again with the damnation of ineffective Chinese school (which wouldn't have helped me anyway, since this is Cantonese land and I'm a Mandarin kind of girl.)
Anyone writing that's still alive? I ask. He shrugs and walks away. He's done with me.
One of the old ladies gives me a cookie. I don't take her picture because a hand-scrawled sign says, "photos $5. video $15." A constant stream of tourists has come in and bought big bags of cookies. I retreat, in defeat. I don't even remember what my fortune said.
But as I walked away I started thinking that maybe it's better to retain the mystery of where those sometimes trite, sometimes profound little prophesies originate. I liked picturing an old man who amused himself with his often little jokes and puns and jabs and insight. I considered making a short documentary about the quest to find the fortune writer.
Until now. Now I know it's some girl at San Jose State who wants to be a realtor, keeps it gender neutral, and never mentions God. Damn USA Today. Maybe they aren't so genius, after all.
Posted by jennifer at 5:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
There was a story about a college student who writes fortune cookie fortunes in USA Today.
Not the most notable story -except that I think the reporters are geniuses. GENIUSES! Why? Because I once spent two days trying to track down fortune cookie writers and came up with NADA.
A cute story, I thought. It was actually my friend's idea --interview the writers of those clever 'Confucious say' aphorisms. Find out the inspiration for those little strips that may be taken out with the chicken bones, or might be carried around in a wallet for years and years.
My favorite fortune of all time is "He loves you as much as he can, but he does not love you very much." Brilliant! I was only in high school at the time, but that little phrase basically summed up my love life to that point and for many years to come. (In fact, they wrote a best selling book based on that very idea, called, "He's just not that into you.")
Anyway, we all know that fortune cookies were invented here in the States, probably in San Francisco (there's lots of different versions of how they got invented; some say for little treats at the Golden Gate Park tea garden) --which makes it the quintessential Asian American food. Sort of.
So I called up the fortune cookie companies in the Bay area to track down those wise writers. Can't be that hard, right? Wrong. No one seems to know. Most said they just got the fortunes from the printers; the printers were the ones who had the templates and they just ran them off.
So I called the printers. "You can say anything you want!" they told me. "No, I don't want to print the fortunes, I just want to know where they came from," I tried to explain. They didn't speak much english. I cursed myself for not actually learning anything in Chinese school. They weren't interested in bridging the language gap since didn't I just say I wasn't a customer?
I called another printer. "We get them from the fortune cookie factory," the phone answerer told me.
Finally I called a fortune cookie factory who said that I should just come down and speak to the owner. he'd tell me everything I want to know.
So I trundled off to Chinatown, to an alley I never noticed was there. (Let's face it, there are much better places for Chinese food and Chinese shopping than tourist-choked Chinatown.) I find the factory --a machine that squirts batter onto round griddles that are slowly rotating like a merry-go-round. Women sit and pull off the hot flats of batter, and just as fast as you can blink, fold in a fortune to create the crescents we're all so familiar with.
I grab a finished cookie. It's terribly hot, I can't hold onto it and have to drop it back into the barrel. The bare-handed women smile and shake their heads at my patheticness.
I inquire after the owner, a gruff old man who tells me most of the fortunes were written by an old man, now dead. At least, I think that's what he said. Again with the damnation of ineffective Chinese school (which wouldn't have helped me anyway, since this is Cantonese land and I'm a Mandarin kind of girl.)
Anyone writing that's still alive? I ask. He shrugs and walks away. He's done with me.
One of the old ladies gives me a cookie. I don't take her picture because a hand-scrawled sign says, "photos $5. video $15." A constant stream of tourists has come in and bought big bags of cookies. I retreat, in defeat. I don't even remember what my fortune said.
But as I walked away I started thinking that maybe it's better to retain the mystery of where those sometimes trite, sometimes profound little prophesies originate. I liked picturing an old man who amused himself with his often little jokes and puns and jabs and insight. I considered making a short documentary about the quest to find the fortune writer.
Until now. Now I know it's some girl at San Jose State who wants to be a realtor, keeps it gender neutral, and never mentions God. Damn USA Today. Maybe they aren't so genius, after all.
Posted by jennifer at 5:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ever wanted to be a superhero? Me too. ...
Short of that (and aren't we all?) there are small things we can do to save people's lives and change the world. Really small things, like writing letters and making phone calls to our representatives. There's an opportunity in the next few weeks to save a few people who might otherwise--because of cynical government policies--be sent back to imprisonment, torture and death as political prisoners in their home countries, or to save a few of our law-abiding neighbors from being deported, or keeping undocumented immigrants on our legal radar--where they have a chance to become law-abiding neighbors.
The House recently passed (March 16) a bill called the "Real ID Act of 2005" (H.R. 418), attached to a "must pass" emergency military funding bill. The Real ID Act of 2005 makes it more difficult for political asylum seekers to get asylum, makes it easier for the government to deport nonviolent permanent residents for association with terrorists, and requires states to deny driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. The Senate is considering the bill now.
The bill would require asylum seekers to supply written corroboration of their claims to the government upon demand, and make them responsible for being unable to provide this information. The demand for such "corroboration" is contrary to international law. The bill would also, according to the ACLU, "make it possible to deport long-term, lawful, permanent residents for providing non-violent, humanitarian support to organizations labeled 'terrorist' by the government." Even if the support was legal at the time it was provided. Finally, the act would force states to deny driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, although state DMV employees are not trained in federal immigration law and would probably resort to ethnic profiling. This last provision would only continue a trend toward making state driver's licenses into de facto national ID cards.
The Real ID Act of 2005 is up before the Senate now and will be voted on in the next few weeks. NOW is the time to register your opinion on the subject with your representative. For a summary of the bill's text and a link to the complete text, as well as for information on action alerts and how to contact your representative regarding this issue, please visit this page on congress.org's website.
And for those in California, according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Sen. Diane Feinstein has recently come out in favor of the bill, so now is the time to get those letters and phone calls into her office!
Posted by claire at 11:36 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Ever wanted to be a superhero? Me too. ...
Short of that (and aren't we all?) there are small things we can do to save people's lives and change the world. Really small things, like writing letters and making phone calls to our representatives. There's an opportunity in the next few weeks to save a few people who might otherwise--because of cynical government policies--be sent back to imprisonment, torture and death as political prisoners in their home countries, or to save a few of our law-abiding neighbors from being deported, or keeping undocumented immigrants on our legal radar--where they have a chance to become law-abiding neighbors.
The House recently passed (March 16) a bill called the "Real ID Act of 2005" (H.R. 418), attached to a "must pass" emergency military funding bill. The Real ID Act of 2005 makes it more difficult for political asylum seekers to get asylum, makes it easier for the government to deport nonviolent permanent residents for association with terrorists, and requires states to deny driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. The Senate is considering the bill now.
The bill would require asylum seekers to supply written corroboration of their claims to the government upon demand, and make them responsible for being unable to provide this information. The demand for such "corroboration" is contrary to international law. The bill would also, according to the ACLU, "make it possible to deport long-term, lawful, permanent residents for providing non-violent, humanitarian support to organizations labeled 'terrorist' by the government." Even if the support was legal at the time it was provided. Finally, the act would force states to deny driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, although state DMV employees are not trained in federal immigration law and would probably resort to ethnic profiling. This last provision would only continue a trend toward making state driver's licenses into de facto national ID cards.
The Real ID Act of 2005 is up before the Senate now and will be voted on in the next few weeks. NOW is the time to register your opinion on the subject with your representative. For a summary of the bill's text and a link to the complete text, as well as for information on action alerts and how to contact your representative regarding this issue, please visit this page on congress.org's website.
And for those in California, according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Sen. Diane Feinstein has recently come out in favor of the bill, so now is the time to get those letters and phone calls into her office!
Posted by claire at 11:36 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Ever wanted to be a superhero? Me too. ...
Short of that (and aren't we all?) there are small things we can do to save people's lives and change the world. Really small things, like writing letters and making phone calls to our representatives. There's an opportunity in the next few weeks to save a few people who might otherwise--because of cynical government policies--be sent back to imprisonment, torture and death as political prisoners in their home countries, or to save a few of our law-abiding neighbors from being deported, or keeping undocumented immigrants on our legal radar--where they have a chance to become law-abiding neighbors.
The House recently passed (March 16) a bill called the "Real ID Act of 2005" (H.R. 418), attached to a "must pass" emergency military funding bill. The Real ID Act of 2005 makes it more difficult for political asylum seekers to get asylum, makes it easier for the government to deport nonviolent permanent residents for association with terrorists, and requires states to deny driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. The Senate is considering the bill now.
The bill would require asylum seekers to supply written corroboration of their claims to the government upon demand, and make them responsible for being unable to provide this information. The demand for such "corroboration" is contrary to international law. The bill would also, according to the ACLU, "make it possible to deport long-term, lawful, permanent residents for providing non-violent, humanitarian support to organizations labeled 'terrorist' by the government." Even if the support was legal at the time it was provided. Finally, the act would force states to deny driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, although state DMV employees are not trained in federal immigration law and would probably resort to ethnic profiling. This last provision would only continue a trend toward making state driver's licenses into de facto national ID cards.
The Real ID Act of 2005 is up before the Senate now and will be voted on in the next few weeks. NOW is the time to register your opinion on the subject with your representative. For a summary of the bill's text and a link to the complete text, as well as for information on action alerts and how to contact your representative regarding this issue, please visit this page on congress.org's website.
And for those in California, according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Sen. Diane Feinstein has recently come out in favor of the bill, so now is the time to get those letters and phone calls into her office!
Posted by claire at 11:36 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Chinese pop singer Coco Lee is releasing a new English-language album on March 25 in hopes of making it big in the United States. From the looks of the album's cover, she's trying the "show lots of skin" Britney-Spears-Christina-Aguilera model for success.
Lee is actually Asian American, having grown up in San Francisco, but she made a name for herself in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where she's a big star.
I last caught a glimpse of Lee in the documentary, "The Year of the Yao," shown at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (try saying that three times fast). Lee was shown singing the national anthem before one of NBA star Yao Ming's games, one of the many hokey "Chinese" or "Asian American" days that seem to happen in basketball arenas when Yao is a visiting player.
I'm not a fan of Lee's music genre, but it'd be nice to see her do well.
Posted by harry at 9:47 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
Chinese pop singer Coco Lee is releasing a new English-language album on March 25 in hopes of making it big in the United States. From the looks of the album's cover, she's trying the "show lots of skin" Britney-Spears-Christina-Aguilera model for success.
Lee is actually Asian American, having grown up in San Francisco, but she made a name for herself in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where she's a big star.
I last caught a glimpse of Lee in the documentary, "The Year of the Yao," shown at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (try saying that three times fast). Lee was shown singing the national anthem before one of NBA star Yao Ming's games, one of the many hokey "Chinese" or "Asian American" days that seem to happen in basketball arenas when Yao is a visiting player.
I'm not a fan of Lee's music genre, but it'd be nice to see her do well.
Posted by harry at 9:47 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
Chinese pop singer Coco Lee is releasing a new English-language album on March 25 in hopes of making it big in the United States. From the looks of the album's cover, she's trying the "show lots of skin" Britney-Spears-Christina-Aguilera model for success.
Lee is actually Asian American, having grown up in San Francisco, but she made a name for herself in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where she's a big star.
I last caught a glimpse of Lee in the documentary, "The Year of the Yao," shown at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (try saying that three times fast). Lee was shown singing the national anthem before one of NBA star Yao Ming's games, one of the many hokey "Chinese" or "Asian American" days that seem to happen in basketball arenas when Yao is a visiting player.
I'm not a fan of Lee's music genre, but it'd be nice to see her do well.
Posted by harry at 9:47 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
As you know, the Senate recently passed a budget that include provisions for drilling to start in the Alaskan National Wilderness Refuge (ANWR). Though the recent vote doesn't mean drilling will start --the budget still hasn't been approved by the House and the president --it is a significant step toward opening up this pristine habitat.
And who cast the swing votes? Among them, Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka from Hawaii. Democrats. With a vote of 51 to 49, their positions were crucial. Why did they turn their backs on their party and the pleas of environmentalists everywhere?
Both senators, in statements you can read online (Inouye's here and Akaka's here) say their main reasoning is that the native people in Alaska are in favor of drilling. Self-determination.
Akaka says, "To me, ANWR is really about whether or not the indigenous people who are directly impacted have a voice about the use of their lands...They have the greatest incentive of anyone to preserve their environment, including the plants and animals that live on the coastal plain, in order to maintain their way of life."
Inouye writes, "When 229 out of 230 tribes tell me they want it, I am ready to respond."
Now I've done some research on the effects of oil drilling on the environment, and it's not pretty. There's a huge amount of waste water (that's supposed to be pumped back into the earth but in places like Ecuador was just left in big, sludgy pools) they have to burn off "waste" gases (full of toxins), and either big pipelines (that can leak) or tankers (that can leak --remember the Exxon Valdez?) have to bring the stuff back to all the thirsty SUVs down here. It's a dirty, dirty business.
But it's hard to argue with the Native Americans. Victims of relentless genocide ever since their land was "discovered" by the Europeans, subjected to horrors like smallpox-infected blankets and systematic kidnapping to "educate" their children, the indigenous people of this land have not had a good go of it. Like everyone else around the world exposed to the American consumer culture, why wouldn't they want tv (with 125 cable channels), convertibles and cell phones that you can day-trade on? And if you're sitting on black gold, texas T, why not cash some of that in?
The self-determination argument slays me. For centuries, colonists used the argument, "We know what's better for you, do as we say," to justify not just economic exploitation but cultural sublimation --you must dress, eat, worship, communicate and work like us. They used arguments of greater intelligence, civilization and morality to justify their position.
On what grounds now could I possibly tell someone that they shouldn't have the right to make their own decisions?
Of course, it's not that simple. I try all the time to get people to stop smoking, for example, because not only is it awful for the smoker but it's a hazard to those around her, too. And I support any legislation that would curtail people's ability to smoke --banning it in restaurants, taxing it, eliminating advertising. if i could bat people's cigarette's out of their hands (without getting beat up) I don't know, maybe i would.
And if I could single-handedly stop drilling in ANWR, I think I would do that, too. I would (in a scenario where I was not only unilaterally powerful but had lots of money and resources) give the native Alaskans so much more than a tiny percentage of as-yet-unknown oil profits --I'd provide education (egads), explore and create alternative industries, introduce them to inhabitants of other oil-rich regions like Nigeria, Ecuador and Iraq so they could see the impact the extraction industry has on a place (often they end up being poorer than non-oil rich regions) and then, fully armed with a big-picture perspective on the global issues, I would let them make their decision.
So long as they made the right choice.
Just kidding.
Kind of.
The truth is, I don't know what to think. As much as I dislike casinos --not just because they are dens of vice and godless sin but because they're tacky and depressing and cliched-- I vote in support of Indian gaming in California. Why? Because it's been very successful in bringing revenue to tribes that haven't even gotten fair land-use payments from the federal government in 100 years.
Of course, I don't think the Republicans are the ones to go around arguing self-determination. They're the ones running around overthrowing governments (not just in America!) and taking away civil rights of everyone whose name isn't Halliburton. or ExxonMobilStarbucksWalmart. That's not the point, of course, since they actually are in alignment with the Alaskan tribes.
Or maybe it is the point, since Republicans and big oil would be clamoring to drill no matter what the tribes thought. Maybe self-determination is a red herring, a smokescreen that Big Money is using to get what it wants again, to paint it in a "people care" fuzzy light.
And then what of the tribes, the people living on the land? Are they just going to get screwed again? Will they be happy buying processed food with their monthly checks from the oil companies (as is apparently the case with many post-Exxon Valdez)? If they are, is that okay?
I, for one, am torn.
Posted by jennifer at 4:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
As you know, the Senate recently passed a budget that include provisions for drilling to start in the Alaskan National Wilderness Refuge (ANWR). Though the recent vote doesn't mean drilling will start --the budget still hasn't been approved by the House and the president --it is a significant step toward opening up this pristine habitat.
And who cast the swing votes? Among them, Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka from Hawaii. Democrats. With a vote of 51 to 49, their positions were crucial. Why did they turn their backs on their party and the pleas of environmentalists everywhere?
Both senators, in statements you can read online (Inouye's here and Akaka's here) say their main reasoning is that the native people in Alaska are in favor of drilling. Self-determination.
Akaka says, "To me, ANWR is really about whether or not the indigenous people who are directly impacted have a voice about the use of their lands...They have the greatest incentive of anyone to preserve their environment, including the plants and animals that live on the coastal plain, in order to maintain their way of life."
Inouye writes, "When 229 out of 230 tribes tell me they want it, I am ready to respond."
Now I've done some research on the effects of oil drilling on the environment, and it's not pretty. There's a huge amount of waste water (that's supposed to be pumped back into the earth but in places like Ecuador was just left in big, sludgy pools) they have to burn off "waste" gases (full of toxins), and either big pipelines (that can leak) or tankers (that can leak --remember the Exxon Valdez?) have to bring the stuff back to all the thirsty SUVs down here. It's a dirty, dirty business.
But it's hard to argue with the Native Americans. Victims of relentless genocide ever since their land was "discovered" by the Europeans, subjected to horrors like smallpox-infected blankets and systematic kidnapping to "educate" their children, the indigenous people of this land have not had a good go of it. Like everyone else around the world exposed to the American consumer culture, why wouldn't they want tv (with 125 cable channels), convertibles and cell phones that you can day-trade on? And if you're sitting on black gold, texas T, why not cash some of that in?
The self-determination argument slays me. For centuries, colonists used the argument, "We know what's better for you, do as we say," to justify not just economic exploitation but cultural sublimation --you must dress, eat, worship, communicate and work like us. They used arguments of greater intelligence, civilization and morality to justify their position.
On what grounds now could I possibly tell someone that they shouldn't have the right to make their own decisions?
Of course, it's not that simple. I try all the time to get people to stop smoking, for example, because not only is it awful for the smoker but it's a hazard to those around her, too. And I support any legislation that would curtail people's ability to smoke --banning it in restaurants, taxing it, eliminating advertising. if i could bat people's cigarette's out of their hands (without getting beat up) I don't know, maybe i would.
And if I could single-handedly stop drilling in ANWR, I think I would do that, too. I would (in a scenario where I was not only unilaterally powerful but had lots of money and resources) give the native Alaskans so much more than a tiny percentage of as-yet-unknown oil profits --I'd provide education (egads), explore and create alternative industries, introduce them to inhabitants of other oil-rich regions like Nigeria, Ecuador and Iraq so they could see the impact the extraction industry has on a place (often they end up being poorer than non-oil rich regions) and then, fully armed with a big-picture perspective on the global issues, I would let them make their decision.
So long as they made the right choice.
Just kidding.
Kind of.
The truth is, I don't know what to think. As much as I dislike casinos --not just because they are dens of vice and godless sin but because they're tacky and depressing and cliched-- I vote in support of Indian gaming in California. Why? Because it's been very successful in bringing revenue to tribes that haven't even gotten fair land-use payments from the federal government in 100 years.
Of course, I don't think the Republicans are the ones to go around arguing self-determination. They're the ones running around overthrowing governments (not just in America!) and taking away civil rights of everyone whose name isn't Halliburton. or ExxonMobilStarbucksWalmart. That's not the point, of course, since they actually are in alignment with the Alaskan tribes.
Or maybe it is the point, since Republicans and big oil would be clamoring to drill no matter what the tribes thought. Maybe self-determination is a red herring, a smokescreen that Big Money is using to get what it wants again, to paint it in a "people care" fuzzy light.
And then what of the tribes, the people living on the land? Are they just going to get screwed again? Will they be happy buying processed food with their monthly checks from the oil companies (as is apparently the case with many post-Exxon Valdez)? If they are, is that okay?
I, for one, am torn.
Posted by jennifer at 4:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
As you know, the Senate recently passed a budget that include provisions for drilling to start in the Alaskan National Wilderness Refuge (ANWR). Though the recent vote doesn't mean drilling will start --the budget still hasn't been approved by the House and the president --it is a significant step toward opening up this pristine habitat.
And who cast the swing votes? Among them, Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka from Hawaii. Democrats. With a vote of 51 to 49, their positions were crucial. Why did they turn their backs on their party and the pleas of environmentalists everywhere?
Both senators, in statements you can read online (Inouye's here and Akaka's here) say their main reasoning is that the native people in Alaska are in favor of drilling. Self-determination.
Akaka says, "To me, ANWR is really about whether or not the indigenous people who are directly impacted have a voice about the use of their lands...They have the greatest incentive of anyone to preserve their environment, including the plants and animals that live on the coastal plain, in order to maintain their way of life."
Inouye writes, "When 229 out of 230 tribes tell me they want it, I am ready to respond."
Now I've done some research on the effects of oil drilling on the environment, and it's not pretty. There's a huge amount of waste water (that's supposed to be pumped back into the earth but in places like Ecuador was just left in big, sludgy pools) they have to burn off "waste" gases (full of toxins), and either big pipelines (that can leak) or tankers (that can leak --remember the Exxon Valdez?) have to bring the stuff back to all the thirsty SUVs down here. It's a dirty, dirty business.
But it's hard to argue with the Native Americans. Victims of relentless genocide ever since their land was "discovered" by the Europeans, subjected to horrors like smallpox-infected blankets and systematic kidnapping to "educate" their children, the indigenous people of this land have not had a good go of it. Like everyone else around the world exposed to the American consumer culture, why wouldn't they want tv (with 125 cable channels), convertibles and cell phones that you can day-trade on? And if you're sitting on black gold, texas T, why not cash some of that in?
The self-determination argument slays me. For centuries, colonists used the argument, "We know what's better for you, do as we say," to justify not just economic exploitation but cultural sublimation --you must dress, eat, worship, communicate and work like us. They used arguments of greater intelligence, civilization and morality to justify their position.
On what grounds now could I possibly tell someone that they shouldn't have the right to make their own decisions?
Of course, it's not that simple. I try all the time to get people to stop smoking, for example, because not only is it awful for the smoker but it's a hazard to those around her, too. And I support any legislation that would curtail people's ability to smoke --banning it in restaurants, taxing it, eliminating advertising. if i could bat people's cigarette's out of their hands (without getting beat up) I don't know, maybe i would.
And if I could single-handedly stop drilling in ANWR, I think I would do that, too. I would (in a scenario where I was not only unilaterally powerful but had lots of money and resources) give the native Alaskans so much more than a tiny percentage of as-yet-unknown oil profits --I'd provide education (egads), explore and create alternative industries, introduce them to inhabitants of other oil-rich regions like Nigeria, Ecuador and Iraq so they could see the impact the extraction industry has on a place (often they end up being poorer than non-oil rich regions) and then, fully armed with a big-picture perspective on the global issues, I would let them make their decision.
So long as they made the right choice.
Just kidding.
Kind of.
The truth is, I don't know what to think. As much as I dislike casinos --not just because they are dens of vice and godless sin but because they're tacky and depressing and cliched-- I vote in support of Indian gaming in California. Why? Because it's been very successful in bringing revenue to tribes that haven't even gotten fair land-use payments from the federal government in 100 years.
Of course, I don't think the Republicans are the ones to go around arguing self-determination. They're the ones running around overthrowing governments (not just in America!) and taking away civil rights of everyone whose name isn't Halliburton. or ExxonMobilStarbucksWalmart. That's not the point, of course, since they actually are in alignment with the Alaskan tribes.
Or maybe it is the point, since Republicans and big oil would be clamoring to drill no matter what the tribes thought. Maybe self-determination is a red herring, a smokescreen that Big Money is using to get what it wants again, to paint it in a "people care" fuzzy light.
And then what of the tribes, the people living on the land? Are they just going to get screwed again? Will they be happy buying processed food with their monthly checks from the oil companies (as is apparently the case with many post-Exxon Valdez)? If they are, is that okay?
I, for one, am torn.
Posted by jennifer at 4:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Is it just me or is there a new magazine born everyday for Asian Amerian women? Three or four years ago there seemed to be just a handful. In the last two years though, there's been an explosion.
In Issue 5 of Hyphen, we reviewed 5 of them in our story "Going Glossy." But we spoke to soon. Our story could have been twice as long because there's a hell of a lot more mags than I originally thought. Honestly, I'm having a hard time telling them all apart. Is the market so vast and demanding that we need to have 10 different magazines? I guess we would if they all catered to different niches, but a lot of them seem to follow the same hetero women's magazine format a la Glamour. Some fashion spreads, some beauty product reviews, an enterprising "How to Turn Your Guy On" list, a "How to Get Ahead in Your Career" story and of course, a relationship columnist. In short, a bunch of fluff.
Now, I'm not saying fluff is necessarily a bad thing. I enjoy my share of fluffy toilet reading. I even subscribe to some fluffy magazines. I guess if we have Cosmo, Glamour, Jane, Marie Claire and a whole bunch of other mainstream women's mags, then we can have countless Asian American women's mags too. But really, how many fluffy mags does the world need?
In an effort to keep a running count of these mags and distinguish them from each other, here's a list I've compiled so far. I'm curious to know what you think of them. And please let me know about any mag I might have missed. With the number of publications out there now, I probably have missed one.
Audrey The Asian American Women's Lifestyle Magazine
I think most people have heard of Audrey. They made a splash when they launched (I think it was 2003). Brought to you by the same folks that publish KoreAm, Audrey is a Pan Asian mag (but I don't see many South Asian faces) that runs profiles, beauty stories and some news stories as well (the latest issue covers the Abercrombie lawsuit). I remember being not very impressed by the first issue, but you know what, I wasn't impressed by the first issue of Hyphen either. They definitely seem to be improving. The story goes that the mag is named after the publisher's daughter. Aaww.
East West Woman
I just noticed this one on the stands the other day. They're based out of Arizona, launched as a website in 2003, and as an actual print mag in 2004. Target audience is Asian American and Middle Eastern American women. This one seems more fluffy than Audrey. Less news. And what's with the name? The phrase "east west" is high on my list of pet peeves. You would know that if you've ever read our submission guidelines.
Jade A Fresh Perspective for Asian Women
Jade's an independent mag out of New York that's been around since 1999 as a website. It features short essay-esque writing with a couple beauty tips thrown in. They put out a couple print versions starting in 2002 (which are this cute small half pint size) but I've not seen any hard copies since 2003. But hey, printing on paper is expensive. The folks at Jade are slumming it Hyphen-style. You know, no real office, volunteer-run, so I understand where they're coming from.
Yin Asian Women Redefined
Also out of New York. They cover both Asians and Asian Americans, but mostly the East Asian ones. Launched an issue in 2004, with Chiaki Kuriyama (psycho schoolgirl in Kill Bill Volume 1) as the cover girl. Ran lots of photos of runway models and outfits. And this top 10 list of movie airport goodbye scenes, which seemed kind of random. Since the premiere issue though, not a peep. The content on the website has been the same for a long time. Is it dead already?
Asiance The Magazine For Asian American Women
I just heard of this one too. As far as I can tell, it's web-based only. More of the same old. You know, Q&A with pop stars and the like. Seems like it's for East and Southeast Asian women.
Jasmine Asian Inspiration
Actually, this one is Canadian. I've only seen one or two issues, but it seems the most polished. They run several fashion spreads, you know, the kind with long limbed models looking very, well, modely. The relationship and sex advice seem more real and not as cheesy as some of the other mags.
Bibi Marriage, Fashion, Home
Founded in 2000 by 3 Houston women for South Asian American women. I think the tagline says it all. It’s pretty fixated on marriage.
Sapna The Modern Desi’s Girl Guide to Life
I haven’t seen an actual hard copy, but Sapna seems like a pretty glossy production and really mimics the look of mainstream women’s mags. The cover layout looks quite a bit like Lucky to me. The latest issue has an interview (albeit very brief) with Harold and Kumar's Kal Penn.
Nirvana Woman
Out of Silicon Valley, this one is for ladies with money to burn. It calls itself the "first national fashion and lifestyle magazine targeting affluent, dynamic and upscale Indian-American women." Guess this one's not for me, cause I'm none of those things. Well, maybe I'm dynamic sometimes. But probably not very often. Mostly I'm just hungry and cranky. Now, where's the magazine for cranky girls?
Posted by Melissa at 3:43 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Is it just me or is there a new magazine born everyday for Asian Amerian women? Three or four years ago there seemed to be just a handful. In the last two years though, there's been an explosion.
In Issue 5 of Hyphen, we reviewed 5 of them in our story "Going Glossy." But we spoke to soon. Our story could have been twice as long because there's a hell of a lot more mags than I originally thought. Honestly, I'm having a hard time telling them all apart. Is the market so vast and demanding that we need to have 10 different magazines? I guess we would if they all catered to different niches, but a lot of them seem to follow the same hetero women's magazine format a la Glamour. Some fashion spreads, some beauty product reviews, an enterprising "How to Turn Your Guy On" list, a "How to Get Ahead in Your Career" story and of course, a relationship columnist. In short, a bunch of fluff.
Now, I'm not saying fluff is necessarily a bad thing. I enjoy my share of fluffy toilet reading. I even subscribe to some fluffy magazines. I guess if we have Cosmo, Glamour, Jane, Marie Claire and a whole bunch of other mainstream women's mags, then we can have countless Asian American women's mags too. But really, how many fluffy mags does the world need?
In an effort to keep a running count of these mags and distinguish them from each other, here's a list I've compiled so far. I'm curious to know what you think of them. And please let me know about any mag I might have missed. With the number of publications out there now, I probably have missed one.
Audrey The Asian American Women's Lifestyle Magazine
I think most people have heard of Audrey. They made a splash when they launched (I think it was 2003). Brought to you by the same folks that publish KoreAm, Audrey is a Pan Asian mag (but I don't see many South Asian faces) that runs profiles, beauty stories and some news stories as well (the latest issue covers the Abercrombie lawsuit). I remember being not very impressed by the first issue, but you know what, I wasn't impressed by the first issue of Hyphen either. They definitely seem to be improving. The story goes that the mag is named after the publisher's daughter. Aaww.
East West Woman
I just noticed this one on the stands the other day. They're based out of Arizona, launched as a website in 2003, and as an actual print mag in 2004. Target audience is Asian American and Middle Eastern American women. This one seems more fluffy than Audrey. Less news. And what's with the name? The phrase "east west" is high on my list of pet peeves. You would know that if you've ever read our submission guidelines.
Jade A Fresh Perspective for Asian Women
Jade's an independent mag out of New York that's been around since 1999 as a website. It features short essay-esque writing with a couple beauty tips thrown in. They put out a couple print versions starting in 2002 (which are this cute small half pint size) but I've not seen any hard copies since 2003. But hey, printing on paper is expensive. The folks at Jade are slumming it Hyphen-style. You know, no real office, volunteer-run, so I understand where they're coming from.
Yin Asian Women Redefined
Also out of New York. They cover both Asians and Asian Americans, but mostly the East Asian ones. Launched an issue in 2004, with Chiaki Kuriyama (psycho schoolgirl in Kill Bill Volume 1) as the cover girl. Ran lots of photos of runway models and outfits. And this top 10 list of movie airport goodbye scenes, which seemed kind of random. Since the premiere issue though, not a peep. The content on the website has been the same for a long time. Is it dead already?
Asiance The Magazine For Asian American Women
I just heard of this one too. As far as I can tell, it's web-based only. More of the same old. You know, Q&A with pop stars and the like. Seems like it's for East and Southeast Asian women.
Jasmine Asian Inspiration
Actually, this one is Canadian. I've only seen one or two issues, but it seems the most polished. They run several fashion spreads, you know, the kind with long limbed models looking very, well, modely. The relationship and sex advice seem more real and not as cheesy as some of the other mags.
Bibi Marriage, Fashion, Home
Founded in 2000 by 3 Houston women for South Asian American women. I think the tagline says it all. It’s pretty fixated on marriage.
Sapna The Modern Desi’s Girl Guide to Life
I haven’t seen an actual hard copy, but Sapna seems like a pretty glossy production and really mimics the look of mainstream women’s mags. The cover layout looks quite a bit like Lucky to me. The latest issue has an interview (albeit very brief) with Harold and Kumar's Kal Penn.
Nirvana Woman
Out of Silicon Valley, this one is for ladies with money to burn. It calls itself the "first national fashion and lifestyle magazine targeting affluent, dynamic and upscale Indian-American women." Guess this one's not for me, cause I'm none of those things. Well, maybe I'm dynamic sometimes. But probably not very often. Mostly I'm just hungry and cranky. Now, where's the magazine for cranky girls?
Posted by Melissa at 3:43 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
Is it just me or is there a new magazine born everyday for Asian Amerian women? Three or four years ago there seemed to be just a handful. In the last two years though, there's been an explosion.
In Issue 5 of Hyphen, we reviewed 5 of them in our story "Going Glossy." But we spoke to soon. Our story could have been twice as long because there's a hell of a lot more mags than I originally thought. Honestly, I'm having a hard time telling them all apart. Is the market so vast and demanding that we need to have 10 different magazines? I guess we would if they all catered to different niches, but a lot of them seem to follow the same hetero women's magazine format a la Glamour. Some fashion spreads, some beauty product reviews, an enterprising "How to Turn Your Guy On" list, a "How to Get Ahead in Your Career" story and of course, a relationship columnist. In short, a bunch of fluff.
Now, I'm not saying fluff is necessarily a bad thing. I enjoy my share of fluffy toilet reading. I even subscribe to some fluffy magazines. I guess if we have Cosmo, Glamour, Jane, Marie Claire and a whole bunch of other mainstream women's mags, then we can have countless Asian American women's mags too. But really, how many fluffy mags does the world need?
In an effort to keep a running count of these mags and distinguish them from each other, here's a list I've compiled so far. I'm curious to know what you think of them. And please let me know about any mag I might have missed. With the number of publications out there now, I probably have missed one.
Audrey The Asian American Women's Lifestyle Magazine
I think most people have heard of Audrey. They made a splash when they launched (I think it was 2003). Brought to you by the same folks that publish KoreAm, Audrey is a Pan Asian mag (but I don't see many South Asian faces) that runs profiles, beauty stories and some news stories as well (the latest issue covers the Abercrombie lawsuit). I remember being not very impressed by the first issue, but you know what, I wasn't impressed by the first issue of Hyphen either. They definitely seem to be improving. The story goes that the mag is named after the publisher's daughter. Aaww.
East West Woman
I just noticed this one on the stands the other day. They're based out of Arizona, launched as a website in 2003, and as an actual print mag in 2004. Target audience is Asian American and Middle Eastern American women. This one seems more fluffy than Audrey. Less news. And what's with the name? The phrase "east west" is high on my list of pet peeves. You would know that if you've ever read our submission guidelines.
Jade A Fresh Perspective for Asian Women
Jade's an independent mag out of New York that's been around since 1999 as a website. It features short essay-esque writing with a couple beauty tips thrown in. They put out a couple print versions starting in 2002 (which are this cute small half pint size) but I've not seen any hard copies since 2003. But hey, printing on paper is expensive. The folks at Jade are slumming it Hyphen-style. You know, no real office, volunteer-run, so I understand where they're coming from.
Yin Asian Women Redefined
Also out of New York. They cover both Asians and Asian Americans, but mostly the East Asian ones. Launched an issue in 2004, with Chiaki Kuriyama (psycho schoolgirl in Kill Bill Volume 1) as the cover girl. Ran lots of photos of runway models and outfits. And this top 10 list of movie airport goodbye scenes, which seemed kind of random. Since the premiere issue though, not a peep. The content on the website has been the same for a long time. Is it dead already?
Asiance The Magazine For Asian American Women
I just heard of this one too. As far as I can tell, it's web-based only. More of the same old. You know, Q&A with pop stars and the like. Seems like it's for East and Southeast Asian women.
Jasmine Asian Inspiration
Actually, this one is Canadian. I've only seen one or two issues, but it seems the most polished. They run several fashion spreads, you know, the kind with long limbed models looking very, well, modely. The relationship and sex advice seem more real and not as cheesy as some of the other mags.
Bibi Marriage, Fashion, Home
Founded in 2000 by 3 Houston women for South Asian American women. I think the tagline says it all. Its pretty fixated on marriage.
Sapna The Modern Desis Girl Guide to Life
I havent seen an actual hard copy, but Sapna seems like a pretty glossy production and really mimics the look of mainstream womens mags. The cover layout looks quite a bit like Lucky to me. The latest issue has an interview (albeit very brief) with Harold and Kumar's Kal Penn.
Nirvana Woman
Out of Silicon Valley, this one is for ladies with money to burn. It calls itself the "first national fashion and lifestyle magazine targeting affluent, dynamic and upscale Indian-American women." Guess this one's not for me, cause I'm none of those things. Well, maybe I'm dynamic sometimes. But probably not very often. Mostly I'm just hungry and cranky. Now, where's the magazine for cranky girls?
Posted by Melissa at 3:43 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
I'm disturbed by the controversy around "Capture an Illegal Immigrant Day". Organized in January by the University of North Texas chapter of Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT), the game was intended as a protest against laissez faire attitudes around illegal immigration, and a demand for more stringent measures. The game involved a few, white, "illegal immigrants", distinguished by their orange t-shirts reading "illegal immigrant" on the front and "catch me if u can" on the back. Passersby were encouraged -- by bullhorn -- to step up and "capture" an illegal, in game-of-tag style, for a candy bar reward. Rumor had it that the YCT chapter in Austin was planning a similar demonstration for Texas Independence Day in early March, but cancelled the event under pressure from other student groups. Despite the demonstration being cancelled, hundreds of students gathered around the YCT's non-game-playing table that day to protest and harrass the YCT members manning the table.
A mini-furor followed. A columnist in online magazine HispanicVista called the event a "prima facie use of racial slurs against students of Mexican ancestry” and the university officials who refused to proscribe such activities in the future, "fascists". He contemplated following Malcolm X's example of using "any means necessary" to stop such racist demonstrations in the future. A student leader in Austin was quoted in a Pacific News Service article as saying: “The Young Conservative demonstration ... not only made us analyze issues like immigration but also question campus politics and rules about public protests and free discourse.”
Liberals are questioning rules about public protests and free discourse? Did I just go insane? Welcome to PATRIOT ACT America, y'all, where the inmates are guarding the asylum. Since when does freedom of speech only apply to the left?
This controversy has recalled a similar controversy last year over a YCT demonstration at Southern Methodist University. This demonstration consisted in a cupcake sale to protest campus affirmative action policies, where buyers were charged different prices according to their race. Whites were charged the most, demonstrating that whites were required to show higher qualifications than minorities to get into universities. The cupcake sale was closed down by school officials, in one of the more hypocritical moments displayed by university administrations recently. Why hypocritical? Because the cupcake sale was a riff on "feminist bake sales", a staple fundraiser in student women's organizations around the country since the days of the women's movement. The feminist bake sale charges men 100% of the price and women 70%, or whatever percent of men's salaries women are averaging for the same work. Popular variations on feminist bake sales include pricing according to the earnings of other groups as well, including racial groups. These racially and gender-based liberal bake sales are never shut down.
The purpose of such demonstrations is exactly that: to demonstrate. These activities recognize that politics consisting in words, speeches and abstract concepts have little power to move people. But give them a small--safe--taste of what the feeling of an inequity is for those who suffer it, and you may be able to arouse their interest, if not their passions. They're intended as small teaching opportunities: moments in which a principle can be taught through direct, if artificial, experience. The feminist bake sale is a small, visceral gesture in the direction of economic equity: today, at this table, those who make less will pay less. The YCT affirmative action bake sale made a small, visceral demonstration of what the protesters feel happens every day on their campus: here at this table, as everywhere else, whites pay more.
The problem with this kind of demonstration is two-fold: first of all, it is intended to engage the feelings, the passions, through experience; it demonstrates not facts, but opinions, feelings. Secondly, there is no arbiter of how people may or may not feel about certain political issues. Creative, visceral demonstrations have traditionally been a tool more of the left. From the Biotic Baking Brigade to Billionaires for Bush, our current local and national political scene is slathered with lefty political pranksters, whose underlying message is serious. But they're making fun of the actions and behaviors of the rich and powerful, something traditionally beneath their targets' notice. The YCT, which attracts members through precisely this snarky brand of prankster activism, is making fun of the poor and underprivileged, essentially kicking our society's most vulnerable while -- or because -- they're down. We feel, in our societally Dudley Dooright kinda way, that this is wrong. But is it? Isn't saucy for the donkey also saucy for the elephant?
If you break all of these demonstrations down into their component opinions they'll come out something like this:
1. feminist bake sale: women and minorities are paid less than white men. They should be paid the same as white men.
2. affirmative action cupcake sale: minorities can get into college on lower qualifications than whites. This should not be.
3. capture an illegal immigrant game: we should be more strict with illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are a drain on our economy.
You may or may not agree with any of the above statements, but would you dispute anyone's right to hold or express any of these opinions? But you know what? I don't even want to argue about freedom of speech anymore, and I'm tired of having to tell people whose politics I agree with to keep the f-word (fascist) off the airwaves, and stop trying to dog-in-the-manger the First Amendment. What I'd really really like to do is spend some quality time picking apart the enormously complex knot of issues that undocumented immigration consists of. I'd like to talk about how illegal immigrants to Texas aren't just Mexican, but also Asian, Central and South American, Arab, and white. I'd like to talk about how our immigrant communities are terribly conflicted about illegal immigration and its implications for them, socially, economically, and politically. I'd like to point out that the racism inherent in opposition to illegal immigration is hard to root out because it's not on the surface. It's buried under layers of politically legitimate conservative opposition to centralization and the social state. I'd like to talk about how liberals aren't allowed to say that uncontrolled undocumented immigration wouldn't be good for anyone, so we need to be very aware of what policies exactly we support and why. There are a bunch of things I'd like to talk about that everyone, myself included, could well have used this incident as a springboard to discussing. Instead, we'r