Monthly Archives: January 2010

Support the Center for the Pacific Asian Family

A reader is overseeing the video campaign for the Center for the Asian Pacific Family to help victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.  They are trying to garner enough votes to win the Chase Community Giving Program–the winning organization will receive a large amount of money from Chase Manhattan Bank that they can use to help promote their cause. In the case of CPAF, the money will be used to keep shelters open. These shelters are used to house women who are trying to escape from abusive relationships.

To help them, you can vote for them here:

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Dear Dad…

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I know our Harvard Justice class is over, but if you all want to see a phenomenal fictional TV illustration of the complexity of justice, check out the latest episode of Medium, “Dear Dad…”  You’ll especially appreciate it if you’re a lawyer.  See it quickly–they only keep episodes up for a week or two.  When you’re done, and not before then, click here for some thoughts:  show

Posted in media | Tagged | 2 Comments

Health Risks for Minorities Trying to Look White

Sammy Sosa, before and now

Sammy Sosa, before and now

You know those skin whitening creams that some minorities use to whiten their skin?  Apparently there are health problems associated with them.  One woman used it, and it made her skin so thin that it bruised easily.  She also got acne.  Where was she getting this skin cream?

“I never read the labels,” Mrs. Ross said. Instead, she took her cues from friends, many of them, like her, from the West Indies. “Once somebody told me Fair & White was the one they were using, I’d go to the Korean store and ask for it,” she said.

Posted in Asian American, News | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

24 Million Bride Shortage

t1larg

I’ve seen this CNN story around the blogosphere, but I first caught wind of it at the Anti-Social Ladder.  Read it here: China Faces 24 M Bride Shortage by 2020.

I’ve written about this before.  It’s the same issue–the one-child policy has resulted in Chinese people undergoing sex-selective abortions, and the gender balance has been swinging towards males.  Too many men, not enough women.  Skewed male gender ratios results in increases in prostitution, kidnapping, forced marriages, and all other kinds of problems.  If you want to read a great book on this issue, check out Den Boer and Hudson’s Bare Branches.  Bad things happen when there are too many men and not enough women.

Posted in Asian American, News | Tagged , , | 45 Comments

Chinese Language School

Thanks, AlphaAsian, for posting this video.  The video is about how education in the Chinese language is critical for Americans to learn about the world.  20% of the world lives in China, and as the experts say, it’s the most important foreign relation that the United States will have in the future.

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The Death of PUA

"Mystery"

"Mystery"

Thanks to King, for sending this article.  Openness truly is the PUA’s kryptonite.  It makes it hard to neg or peacock when your target knows the score from watching TV or reading about the “movement.”  Incidentally, I heard that PUA-ish behavior is really big in the cities these days.  These bootcamps may have to relocate to a place where women don’t watch VH1.

Posted in media | Tagged | 27 Comments

Google Threatens to Pull Out of China

internet

I’m a day late on this one, but I wanted to weigh in.  After a cyberattack that looks like it was intended to hack the gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents, Google has threatened to pull its operations from China.  See the Times story here.  That’s right, no more dealing with Chinese censorship, no more dealing with the world’s slowest web, no more programming to create filters to sway the politics of the world’s most populous country.

Posted in media, News | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Earthquake in Haiti

articlelarge1There was a massive 7.0 earthquake in Haiti today, knocking out power, phone lines, and entire buildings.  It is estimated that 100,000 people died.  See the story from the NY Times here.

“Parliament has collapsed,” Mr. Préval told The Miami Herald. “The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed. There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.”

He added: “All of the hospitals are packed with people. It is a catastrophe.”

Obama made a statement:

Posted in Activism, News | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Dudescape to Dadscape

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I caught this article linked by the fine people of BicoastalBitchin.

Alls I gotta say is that the writer hit the nail right flat on the head.  This was my favorite sentence:

When baby makes three, the abrupt lifestyle change spells an end to these spontaneous expeditions.

Age three is the magic number, and it’s a dad thing, almost exclusively.  Wives and women are cool checking with the singles, adjusting to the schedule, embarking on the same activities.  But for guys, the party begins to end when the baby first comes, as you get used to changing diapers, feeding the baby, putting the baby to sleep, etc.  The party completely ends at 3.  You’re no longer the same person.  Dude, meet yourself.

Posted in parenting, Portland | Tagged , | 3 Comments

China Becomes #1 Car Market and #1 Export Nation

Cars, cars, cars

Cars, cars, cars

China in 2009 overtook the United States as the world’s biggest car market (thanks, King!).  It’s huge.  Never in history has any country surpassed the American car market.  This is great news for China, horrible news for the environment, and maybe even worse news for the world’s limited supply of fossil fuels.  I’m reading a book called Green Metropolis right now, and the stat they use is that America currently uses 25% of the world’s fossil fuels. 25%!   And we’re only a country of 300 million.  What is going to happen when a country of 1.3 BILLION suddenly adopts American lifestyles?  As a planet, we’d better find a way to stop this dependence on liquid energy.  I don’t know if this is good news for us.  Do they buy our cars?

Posted in News | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments