Tag: Race and ethnicity in the United States Census

Heterogeneous country, homogeneous thought

Google CEO blurted out what we all know (that tech moves at 3 times faster than other business sectors, who in turn, are 3X than the government). We are analog-built e.g. eating,  buying and thinking habits, while techies thought processing power is on a different plane e.g. Cold-War B53 bomb in TX is finally being disassembled and junked.

A Swedish public health expert gave a TEDx talk some years ago. He put up some slides which span 200 years just to show how entrenched we are in yesterday’s thinking (e.g. that women in emerging nations have a lot of children while the opposite is now true). In short, formative years continue to cloud our lenses (or our teachers’ who got their data from post- War textbooks). Another stat: more deaths from suicide in the US (mostly men in their mid-50’s) than from automobile accidents. Or more Christian in China, than the membership of the Communist Party.

Or  thanks to rural broadband, the creative class in the US can finally afford housing and pursuit their passion, let’s say in software programming, in 2nd-tier cities like Seattle, Austin (as opposed to New York and San Francisco).

One more thing. Back in the days when America found it hard to accept a President who was Catholic

and the only “Muslim” brother who left his last name blank (X). The Big Three in Detroit, Big Three in Broadcasting, and a healthy middle class, with Union wages. Now, things get splintered of, with MNC’s paying zero domestic tax (GE), and CDO peddlers paying no COD (it’s still a mystery that Madoff was the only fall guy – whose rehearsed bio was …”I was an underdog when I started in brokerage, so I got to have my revenge at ‘them'” ” we contemplated suicide but it’s our son that followed it through). The same tax codes hasn’t been 21st-century compliant enough to catch clever white-collar looters.

Meanwhile, across the pond, it will take another three decades for China’s branding to rise (The Chinese Dream) just as it has taken them 3 decades to ramp up manufacturing and exports. Reverse engineering will be followed by reverse branding. Their state machinery will be hard at work to take apart every element that make Cola and IBM global brands.

(try to top Steve Jobs, the marketer who still got marketed in his death: simple and elegant cover featuring his signature stare).

First wave will be tourists. Second wave, engineering students . Third wave, marketing catalysts, Huawei and Haier, try to pry open the US-EU domestic markets (foreign in their perspective). At today’s speed, even Toyota with its continuous improvement still can’t compete with revived brands like VW.  It seems that John Le Carre is not the only one whose career and mindset are stuck in Cold War era. Cuba still has 1950’s automobiles crowding the streets. At least, we must admit they don’t make things like that any more. Should have kept jobs in Indiana, and not India.

Things were moving quite rapidly at the bottom line, and slow at topline.

Austin

Tech campus turned Mall (still keeps the “DOMAIN” name).

Borders out of business, but Apple store is thriving.

Austin, ranked as most tolerant city in America, saw Chinese Graduate students hang out leisurely on a Sunday afternoon, complete with rocking chairs, very well be made in China.

Welcome to America. Welcome to Starbucks. What’s your name buddy? My name is Buddy.

Howdy Buddy. Wait over that line for your gourmet latte.

It’s the one spot in the middle of Texas where even a native feels out-of-place.

It could have been a page right out of the San Jose playbook.

Silicon Valley meets Silicon Hills. If only they can pull off a Chinese New Year Parade as does annually in San Francisco.

Fifteen years ago, there was little of the town as far as Asian groceries and shops.

Now there exists a large, newly built compound, unmistakably Asian with names like  Pho Saigon, Saigon Baguette, Chinese barbeque. There even is a Chinese bank at the corner, as well as Chinese church at the T section of Braker and Dessau.

The Recession made strange bed fellows, at times, literally (interracial couples seen walking down the street, forcing senior citizens to pause and be puzzled: are we at war with China? The last times Asian girls seen walking with white guys, was during war-time that brought them together were during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.).

So, there it is, a new Domain, complete and transformed from a once overhyped dot.com era.

Yes, Austin is thriving and aggressive to win over California businesses and elsewhere. UT students are benefited from this microcosm of the larger world.

Gaming and software companies are source-coding every minute of the day and night. It’s fitting that 24-hr gyms pick this city to expand.

One thing that was left out in The Rise of the Creative Class. Austin, although ranked as most tolerant city in America, is also home to most allergies in America. I knew it’s too good to be true from the Chamber of Commerce web page. It is now a certified truth that one needs to walk the ground as well as see things from afar. GPS alone can’t quite do the job.  Onward, adapt (euphemism for step back), then onward again.

Starbucks knows it best. Until the McDonald guy catches on. He asked for my name (first time in 36 years). I gave it to him too. My name is Buddy.

Honor roll

I attended a power breakfast this morning.

Neither Presidential nor Congressional.

Only elementary honor students and designated parents.

Something about “the magic”.

New Report System (Most improved etc… as opposed to traditional A,B,C grading).

I am proud of my daughter.

She exhibits all the traits of an up and coming Asian student (the model minority). Tiger Mom, you know (translation: I got “Tiger” spouse).

Just then did I notice Bonnie from Penn State, and how she was introduced as one “who knows every student by name”.

That’s a tall order to know each kid and affirm them.

Where would we be today without those “Bonnie’s”.

I am a TK (Teacher kid).

I know the  price a TK has to pay (as his mom was at service of thousands of other kids).

Mom, could you tug me to bed (instead of grading school papers late into the evening).

Society is highly hypocritical when it comes to children’s right and

pet’s right etc…

But as soon as we grow up, Bam! we got put into boxes (in California, latest  census measures showed ” alarming decline of non-Hispanic white group etc…”).

Indignez Vous?

The author of the above title also joint-authored the UN Human Right charter. Still going strong at 93. Still fighting with every liter of hot blood.

I want to leave behind two beautiful kids, who will give so much to the sustainability of spaceship Earth.

It’s always noble of parents to say they want better lives for their children. This was true with my Mom.

Now it’s my turn.

Have you ever paid attention to the hyphen (-) key on top line of the key board.

We all are “hyphens” in between generations,  not “dumb” nodes.

We adapt, evolve and discriminate (in a good sense), to uplift and elevate next generations. Net-Geners will have longer life expectancy, but conversely,

they will bear the brunt of  financial and environmental burden.

I felt sorry for having bought  the water bottle trend back in the 90’s.

For you, perhaps, the SUV‘s.

Global warming wasn’t the act perpetrated by any single person.

The school handed out my child’s honor roll.

But it’s our responsibility to make sure she get breakfast roll, without accompanied toxicity.

America is still number one in some areas, among them, obesity and rate of incarceration. Yoga, baby, yoga.

I don’t do nail either!

One down (sausage man), another rises up.

Jimmy Dean that is. (He could have come back with a better retort, ” No I don’t do sausage” backstage, and “No, I don’t do nail” on stage).

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/07/01/americas-got-talent-jimmy-dean-makes-us-laugh/

Although it’ s America’s Got Talent his routine came across as America Got Burden ” you owe me some back allowance”.

I have had my shares of poor-taste portrayal of Asian in the media (most recently was an Asian married woman in “She is way out of my league”).

Now this. The only counter punch is, if there are better raw stuff out there,  why didn’t you try out? (No, I got to do nail). What are you waiting for?

At least, the gay community has come out, since 1970. One of the last groups to rightfully claim their American rite of passage is Asian-American (see my other blog on The Nguyen).

We got friends who published both in Technology and Business subject.

We got film directors that do us proud.

We got elected officials and television anchors.

Next come-out party should be at a high-level, organized and representative of a group of  smart, strong and sensitive people who care about the world at large.

You see, out of the ash rises the Phoenix. If dioxin cannot destroy the spirit, I don’t think anything else will. Just wait and see. Out of 3+ million Vietnamese overseas, we have seen remittance of around $9 Billion. And this is during the economic downturn. Wait until the water lifts all boats. And Jimmy Dean (Dinh) said he would come back next year to try out again. By then, Mandel’s back allowances will gain more interests. Still, I don’t do nail either. I am not that dexterous. I know from whose hands that 9 Billion dollars were. Nothing is wrong with earning an honest living. But America Got Issues: it is too lazy to steer away from racial stereotyping. More beer summit then.

And please include me. I will wear Hawaiian, if you don’t mind.

Things we wish we could take with us

When at Indian Town Gap in 1975, I was busy helping out at the Bureau of Child Welfare so time passed rather quickly.

But not for my fellow countrymen. Many sat there worried: how were they going to make it in America, that winter was coming.

Many hurried weddings took place at the camp chapel.  People were busy matching up sponsors and foster children.

For me, I was glad I could earn a few bucks by being a translator. And spent them all on cassette tapes.

We recorded music (one machine would play, the other recorded, in the barrack’s bathroom).

“Lovin you” was number 1 on the Hit Parade that year. And ironically, someone was playing “Band On the Run”.

We left unfinished youth: time spent at cafe, listening to Lobo‘s number 1 hit “You and Me and the dog named Boo”.

Or felt so spiritual with “My Sweet Lord” .

If you want to “break in” to the Vietnamese market, best way is to figure out your niche, then play those music subliminally.

Mix in some French songs, because the Romantic era never left Vietnam, especially Hanoi. In fact, time seems to freeze there.

You can still see a Citroen on a good evening.

Back to my odyssey. So when I got to Penn State, I immediately made friends and we threw a party.

It’s one of those times when you could spot someone Vietnamese on a cold Harrisburg night, and he would let you sleep on the floor.

And never forgot the hospitality of people of the same human condition. And I realize now the things I wanted then to take with me: my dreams, my expressions of those dreams, and the heritage I left. No wonder song writers wrote about Hanoi after the evacuation of

1954, and Saigon, 1975. Those places are symbols of one’s lost times, unrealized dreams and definitely, curators of both wise and foolish choices.

To tourists , these cities are just crowded network of concrete dividers, and  trees are few. Tourists would place Hanoi, Hue and HCMC against a back drop of 100 places to see before they died. But little do they know, they have their own” Hanoi” and “Saigon” too. They just didn’t care to acknowledge, until the 11th hour.  No wonder I can identify with Cinema Paradiso. The Italian have a lot in common with the Vietnamese. We both like Sophia Loren.  We know what’s nostalgia is and do not feel ashamed to admit it.

What’s wrong with burning incense and feeling reconnect with loved ones, since they might not be living, but the relationships are very much alive. In fact, one loves one’s parents more when they are gone because absence makes the heart grow fonder. ” I love you too much to ever start liking you, so don’t expect me to be your friend”. Lobo knows how to say it, in a very Asian way. No wonder he can still have some Asian fans, late in his career.

rollin, rollin on the (Saigon) river

Working for the man, every night and day… big wheel keeps on turnin,

River boat dining provides another view of Saigon Water front.

Hotel Majestic, Sheraton and Sun Wah guests look at you (dining on the river boat), while you look at them.

Tourists are still coming in drove and enjoying a night out.

From the gang-plank, I can see the unlit barge along side (and small speed boat, not Somalian though). Years ago, those barges carried human cargo. Mass of humanity, helplessly clung to the hope of a new tomorrow out there in the open seas. The “mini-mass” are trickling back. First as tourists, in cognito and blended in with Asian and Westerner counterparts.

Slowly, the feel of the place gets more at home: high-end hair salon and spa,

organized tours and menu in dollars.

District 7 now has  Lotte Mall, Parkson Mall and Crescent Mall. The view from those District 7  shopping centers and supermarkets in South Saigon could trick you into thinking you were somewhere else but Vietnam.

Construction crew heck away. English classes plow away. And of course supermarket registers chuck chink on. Reminds me of a childhood poem Au Marche, with glistening fish (reflecting the sun in open air market).

The Rock and rollers are getting older by the day, pony tail or not. But “you’re  still the one, I want” and of course, Proud Mary.

Rollin, rollin, rollin on the river. Tina Turner once said, despite her nth time performing that number, she has a way to deliver it differently each time.

I guess Saigon is like that song. You got to discover it anew, each time.

And who said you can’t swim in the same river twice. I just did, floating in the same river on two completely different vessels and traversing in opposite direction. Same river. that carries the process called Revietnamization.

 

Asian drivers

It’s been a long way since Sixteen Candles.

In it, we found Long Duk Dong, the male Asian actor, portrayed a Japanese exchange student who wrecked the host family car on a night out

“what auto-mobile?” he asked laying on the front lawn at mid morning the next day.

Fast forward to today and the sentence of Madoff.

We found judge Denny Chin, arrived from Hong Kong at age 2 and lived in Hell Kitchen in Times Square, to rise to a federal judgeship. His high-profile case today provides a catharsis for the blood-thirsting public.

There have been a slew of Asian men moving into the lime light: Ang Lee (BrokeBack Mountain),

Ray Young (GM’s CFO) and David Li (Recipe for disaster, wired magazine) who came up with the formula to slice and dice CDO’s (should have been COD’s).

Sociologists have noticed an interesting pattern in interracial marriages: White male-Asian female, Black male-White female, but not Asian male-Black female (some how it’s at the opposite ends of the spectrum).

But the American racial landscape has evolved a bit, since the Japanese internment during WWII to today’s sentencing.

It’s a white-collar crime, and the country origin of the judge has not been an issue. During this Recession, we find

Ling (now working for a private equity company in China), Chin and Young all came across as

“could hold the water”, a long way since the days of  Sixteen Candles’ “what auto-mobile??”

I forgot if it were a GM car or not, but it certainly was a Detroit huge car given the early 80’s time-frame.

Time has changed. Hyundai and Fiat will soon be as popular as the 90’s SUV’s. Wait until the QQMe arrives from China.  At least, marketers should know enough to avoid pushing  pink cars to Asian men or any male.