12.20.07
Posted in Culture, Health, World News, China at 12:27 am by telly_wong
“I raise you for 35 years and all I get is this flippin’ hat!?!?”
In The Doors classic, “Five to One”, the great Jim Morrison proclaimed “the old get old and the young get stronger.”
In relation to modern China, he would be half-right.
China’s population is getting increasingly older and their kids are becoming more ungrateful, according to a new study by the National Committee on Aging. Unfortunately these changes are having a negative effect on the nation’s longstanding cultural traditions, society and even the mental health of its seniors.
According to the survey, as of June 1, 2006, China had 146.57 million citizens over the age of 60, which accounts for 21.4% of the total number of people in that age group worldwide — that means 1 out of 5 old people on this planet is a Chinese.
But one of the most surprising findings, in my humble opinion, were 49.7% of elderly persons in urban areas lived in “empty nest” families in 2006, while 50.3% stayed with other family members. These numbers reveal a stark deviation from the longtime Chinese cultural tradition of the “extended family” and kids providing for their parents into their old age.
Meanwhile, in rural areas, the tradition is still practiced, for the most part, with 61.7% of elderly residing with family members and 38.3% living alone. However, those numbers are also beginning to even themselves out as experts cite the increasing number of senior “empty nest” households in both urban and rural China.
So what’s causing all this? Modern China turning their back on filial traditions and adopting Western ones? The increasing bachelor population who don’t have big homes for their folks to move into? The lack of space in big city apartments? The increased cost of living? Unfortunately, the study doesn’t provide any answers.
The study does cite, however, some other major socio-economic and psychological changes that go along with the rising number of “empty nest” households, including seniors increasingly relying on on social insurance to support themselves instead of being cared for by their children and rising rates of depression and thoughts of suicide.
This is kind of sad news. After all, I think my parents are pretty cool. Although I’m not personally a fan of the “extended family household” concept (I need my privacy), I do intend to look after my folks if and when they get feeble, senile and/or start uncontrollably peeing on themselves. I would never, ever adopt the Great American tradition of putting them in a “home”.
China is changing faster than I can fully comprehend these days but I seriously hope its culture, values and traditions can withstand the tidal wave of Western influence in these coming years. After all, how interesting is a society of Asian folks who all talk, act and think like the average white American?
And besides, don’t we already have that over here?
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11.28.07
Posted in Health, Education at 6:42 pm by mark_chang
BULLYING, USED TO BE (PRIMARILY) AN ASIAN PROBLEM
Verbal and physical bullying has been a “rite of passage” for just about every Asian boy growing up in America.
Psychiatrists and school teachers have long known of the detrimental effects bullying has on it’s victims but only recently, has the age old practice been getting increased attention arguably due to the fact that bullying is no longer a practice mainly targeting Asians.
THANK ME NOW OR THANK ME LATER
In an effort to make this world a better place to live in, I’ve selected the following tips from the chapter on bullying from my forthcoming book.
Note that the text is written from a parent’s perspective of a male child.
ROOT CAUSE
Bullying is not a result of troubled children seeking attention. It is about establishing power by showing you are stronger by picking on someone weaker. Often times, Asian children are the targets of bullies because they are an easy victim and a bully does not like a challenge. They are easy victims because physically they are often times smallish and socially, they are different from the western children.
A BULLY CAN SMELL A WEAKLING 10 YARDS AWAY
To help prevent your child from being bullied:
- Enroll the child in self defense programs both of a striking as well as a grappling nature. Self defense discipline(s) should be the only extra-curricular activities. Playing the piano does not build confidence if the pianist cannot defend himself.
- Have your child make as many friends as possible. A bully usually likes to single out a loner.
- Do not buy them expensive or attractive clothes or items. This will make other children jealous and they will look to “punish” your child. If you attempt to show superiority through spending power, the bully will attempt to show superiority through physical power.
- Do not provide any escapes at home for a small child. These include video games, movies, toys, etc. If a child only looks forward to the comforts of home, they will take the path of least resistance while at school. If there are no escapes the child will be forced to deal with the situations as they arise.
EARLY ON
Some children instinctively fight back. However, if you have a more “cerebral” child (the psychological term for a child that does not instinctively hit back but instead attempts to analyze the situation), up to age six or seven they will not understand these concepts. At age six or seven if there is no progress they should be told in no uncertain terms that they are not a punching bag for the western children and that they need to defend their bodies and their family honor.
Make sure to tell your child:
- If someone does something you do not like, do it back to them.
- Always inform you, the parent about things that happen at school.
- You, the parent are there to help them, not to judge or punish them.
- Not fighting back at all is worse than losing a fight.
- Ignoring the problem will only make it escalate.
BE THE REFEREE
If you are present when a situation arises, do not expect your child to defend himself. Physically step in, separate the other kid, and give him a stern warning that “violence is not an acceptable way to solve problems”. If/when their parent confronts you with “don’t talk to my kid” or “don’t touch my kid”, simply respond with: “I wouldn’t have to talk to/separate your kid if you could control your kid.”
Whenever talking with your child’s teacher, inquire about your child’s interaction with other kids, e.g. “so how is <name of child> getting along with the other kids? Any problems?”
The primary responsibility to monitor children’s interactions at school lies with the teacher. The teacher should also be your first point of contact in order to address the situation when dealing with primary school children (up to grade 6). Unfortunately, teachers (in the US) are overworked, underpaid and therefore protecting an Asian kid from being harassed is not going to be high on their list of priorities.
DOCUMENT DOCUMENT DOCUMENT
Upon the first incident, write a formal request (with return receipt) to the principal (public) or director (private) of the school indicating the child’s name, the offending child, the events that transpired and that you expect your child to be safe while in their custody. Putting this in writing indicates that you are serious about the issue and establishes a paper trail in case things need to be escalated. Institutions know that America is a litigious society and realize it is in their best interest to avoid a potential lawsuit.
Give the teacher and school system a week to correct the bullying. If the bullying does not stop and your child is unable or unwilling to protect themselves, you may choose to confront the parents of the bully.
DEALING WITH DIRT
This is usually fruitless since a child who bullies either learns the behavior from a parent who attempts to intimidate others or is simply genetically predisposed to pick on others. All of the above or combination thereof point to the home. Even if you are successful in convincing a parent to take responsibility for their child’s behavior, the child himself will most likely not listen to their parent(s).
AN EXERCISE IN FUTILITY?
However if you do choose to confront the bully’s parents:
- Find out from the teacher if any other children are being bullied by the same child, if so get as many details as possible, names, dates, incidents and record the conversation covertly. Talk to those parents who may not be aware of their child being bullied first and get a small group together to confront the bully’s parents.
- Do not bring your child. Any resolution is completely the choice of the bully’s parent(s). If you walk away with nothing your child will see that you are powerless and that there is nothing he can do either.
- Covertly record the entire conversation. If you sense that the parent is unwilling to cooperate, bait the parent into attacking your heritage. Once recorded, this should be submitted to the police in to obtain a restraining order against the parent and his child. The last thing the police want to deal with is a potential hate crime since it draws publicity.
- Deal with the father, you might be able to convince a reasonable man to put his dog … err child on a leash. However with the mother, her maternal instinct will most likely kick in and she will defend her “angel” at all costs and you will end up being shrieked at and threatened by an irrational person who, to a child will appear to have “won” the argument. This will further empower the onlooking bully.
- Remain calm. Do not show anger. Anger is a result of frustration and bullies enjoy it when they can frustrate you to the point of anger. Do not be sarcastic and do not use foul language. This will make the other person less reasonable.
- Do not plead, pleading is the result of being powerless in a situation and bullies enjoy it when they can show domination.
- Do not refer to the principles by name, only use “your kid”, “my kid”. This brings the situation into a family issue instead of a children’s issue among themselves.
- Do not make specific threats. You will most likely not follow through and this will make you look ridiculous. If you are going to take action, prior threatening will only inform your enemy of your intentions.
- Be mentally prepared to walk away without a resolution.
EG.
You: Hi, Mr. <bullies’ surname>, I’m <your name>, I’m not sure if you are aware that your kid has been <name incident(s)> my kid. I would appreciate it if you could get him to stop.
The bully’s parent(s) will most likely respond with one of the following:
- “My kid is telling me that you are trying to intimidate him and he is scared of you”, to which you may say: “I don’t interact with anyone else’s kids. If your kid feels intimidated or scared, maybe that is a guilty conscience resulting from <name incident(s)>”.
- “Your kid needs to learn how to deal with it himself”, to which you could ask: “so you are OK with your kid bullying other kids?”. At this point, since you are recording the conversation, bait the person into saying something Anti Asian or bait them into making fun of Asians. Leave them with a parting request of “just keep your kid away from my kid.” Then take the recording to the police and claim you are being harassed due to your ethnicity.
- “Are you trying to tell me what to do?”, to which you could say: “You do what you want as long as it doesn’t affect my family.”
- “That’s the responsibility of the teacher.”, to which your could say: “The teacher can not be everywhere at all times.”
- “What do you want me to do about it?”, to which you could say: “I would appreciate if you sat your kid down and explained to him that there is no honor in picking on a weaker kid.”
- “This kid has been going through some problems at home.”, to which you could say: “and I can fully sympathize with that but now your problems are becoming my problems.”
- “Then you need to teach your kid how to stand up for himself.”, to which you could say: “With all due respect I don’t think you’re in any position to offer parenting advice, your kid is out of control.”
Don’t be surprised if the bully’s parent lists off a number of grievances against you. Write them down (if on the phone) or remember them, summarize them back to the parent (to help you remember) and then proceed to address one issue at a time.
If the bullies parents know what is going on and approach you to ask if everything is OK, do not acknowledge that it is. They are actually bullying you into agreeing that it is OK for their child to bully your child. Do not agree to anything, tell them instead: “not happy about what happened” and if they pursue the conversation tell them: “the more you talk the more I think you’re trying to bully me into agreeing and I’m not my kid, I don’t like being bullied.”
If you feel that you can physically beat the bully’s father, challenge him to a fight preferably in front of his child. Only do this if you are sure you can win.
Some of the ways to bait the bully’s father into agreeing to accept your challenge:
- Refer to his kid as an animal
- Mention that his kid is stupid and therefore bullies out of frustration.
- Take on a “3rd grade teacher” persona when talking to the parent.
- “Your kid is out of control, you’re running a lunatic camp in your house.”
- “One of these days your kid is going to get exactly what he deserves. I only hope I’m there to see it.”
- “I’m not my kid, take a swing at me and see what happens.”
- “Now I see where your kid gets his behavior from”
SECOND CHANCES
If none of the above work, place the child in a different school. Relocate to another city if you have to. An entire school year of bullying will have a far more traumatizing effect on the child than a relocation. Before entering the new school the child must understand that bullies are everywhere and will have to be dealt with. The change of schools is not to avoid bullying but rather to get a second chance on properly dealing with bullies.
IT’S EITHER HIM OR YOU
Upon the first day in a new environment, have your child observe the alliances within the group. Knowing which children are aligned together is crucial.
Take note of any of the other children that are being bullied. If your child is being bullied, have him form alliances with the other children who are also being bullied.
Concoct a plan to isolate the bully. Have your child take the lead since others can not be counted on. Ambush and surprise the bully. Use a foreign object to repeatedly strike the bully.
Once the bully is in a compromised position, the other victims will be more likely to step up and administer a beating but do not count on it.
There can be no negotiation, pleading or sympathy. It will come back in the form of vengeance. The bully is a vicious animal and must be dealt with as such. Your child must understand it is either him or the bully. Your child must continue the beating until no question remains that the bully is not only physically damaged but also spiritually. Simply “winning” the fight does not suffice. The goal must be mid to long term bodily harm since violence is the only thing a bully understands.
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11.08.07
Posted in Health at 5:38 am by william_lee
According to this article, more and more people are hitting the gym in the wee hours of the morning.
- Even at 5:30 in the morning, Marlene Mauk is wide awake and smiling as she walks through the door of the Buckhead Athletic Club in Atlanta, Georgia.
Marlene Mauk hits the gym at 5:30 a.m. It “gets all the stress out of you and energizes you,” she says.
She happily brags that her 30-mile commute was a breeze because she avoided rush-hour traffic. “I find it much easier leaving my house at 4:50 and being here at 5:30,” 40-year-old Mauk says. “I can get my workout in and go on with my day.”
Richard Vidoli, also 40, left his house in the Atlanta suburb of Acworth at 5 a.m. and walked in the club minutes behind Mauk. “I can save a good 40 to 45 minutes on my commute if I come in early,” he says.
Vidoli and Mauk are part of an emerging trend around the country: Commuters leaving their homes before dawn to avoid the stress of being stuck on clogged highways.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports nearly 18 percent of American workers leave home between 5 and 6:30 in the morning. That’s 3 million more people than reported early departures during the same hours in 2000 and 6 million more than in 1990.
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11.06.07
Posted in Activism and Empowerment, Racism, Health, Education, Crime, Sexuality at 12:15 am by george_lou
Researchers from Western Carolina University have concluded that sexist humor can promote discrimination against women.
The study focused on male reactions after being subjected to either a) sexist jokes, b) comparable non-humorous sexist statements, or c) non-sexist jokes.
The news article points out 3 important findings. First, men with a high level of sexism were less likely to donate to a women’s organization after reading sexist jokes. Second, those same types of men implemented larger funding cuts to women’s organizations as opposed to other organizations. Third, participants believed that other participants would approve of funding cuts to women’s organizations when sexist humor was present.
Well, well, well. You dont have to a minority to know that this is all obvious. As a matter of fact, we have pointed this out before here on Fall Out Central. Remember Allport’s Scale of Prejudice? It is a measuring stick for different levels of prejudices. It starts with Scale 1, which is Antilocution - a group freely makes jokes about a minority group. Then escalates up to Scale 5 - Extermination.
Tip to the researchers at Western Carolina University: sexist jokes can very well lead to physical attack, even worse. It should be noted that their research is based on verbal interaction that takes place not in the presence of the victims. In other words, the sexist jokes are not said face-to-face to a woman.
And what if those sexist jokes are said to directly to a woman? We have also pointed out in the past that routine discrimination puts minorities under significant stress that can lead to chronic illness.
Good job guys at Western Carolina University. Now ignorant people can stop using the excuse, “Well it’s just a joke.”
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10.25.07
Posted in Health, World News at 5:53 pm by telly_wong
“Stop nagging me, woman! I can quit whenever I want!”
Why do Asians love smoking so goddamn much?
Just three weeks after we reported about the smoking epidemic in China, where The Chinese are consuming 42% of the products by the world’s three largest tobacco companies, this new report comes in from Korea about their own nicotine habit.
As with China, it’s also a case of good news and bad news in Korea, according to the Korean Association of Smoking and Health.
The good news is that adults and high school boys are slowly quitting. Among the latter, the rate dropped from 23% in 1988 to 20.7% in 2006.
The bad news is that teen smoking is on the rise after years of significant declines. In 2004, the rate among middle school boys dropped from 7.4% in 2000 to 2.4%. However, in 2006, the rate climbed to 5.3%. Among middle school girls, the rate increased from 0.9% in 2002 to 3.3% in 2006, and from 2.4% to 5.2% for high school girls during that same period.
According to the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, teens who smoke tend to drink four times and have sex eleven times as much as their non-smoking counterparts. The Center also cites a correlation between smoking and suicide, as the number of teens who have attempted to kill themselves is three times greater among smokers.
While I can see the connection between smoking and drinking and suicide (as cigarettes are sometimes used as antidepressants), I have a difficult time comprehending how smoking increases your chances of getting banged.
Now I think smoking is a disgusting habit and another form of mental enslavement by The Man. However, if there is an interrelation between cigarettes and sex, I strongly urge the guys over at Stanford to look into how nicotine can play a greater role in their lives.
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10.19.07
Posted in Health, Sexuality at 6:12 pm by telly_wong
Tofu, The Cheese of Asia
WASHINGTON — Here’s a revelation: Eating soy products won’t destroy your sperm. As a devout and virile vegan who consumes soy-based foods religiously, I could’ve already told you that. But, alas, who’s gonna trust the word of a Chinese guy these days?
A press release by the Soyfoods Association of North America has denounced a recent study by Dr. Jorge Chavarro which found eating soy products could have detrimental effects on a guy’s man seed.
To underscore their case, the Association points to a recent article in New Scientist in which Chavarro himself “speculates that his study found a link between soya and low sperm count because many of the participants were overweight or obese. Men with high levels of body fat produce more oestrogen than their slim counterparts.”
Additionally, the Association cites East Asian men as shining examples of the benefits of a soy-rich diet: “Generations of Asians have regularly consumed soyfoods without fertility disorders, and Asian countries have prodigiously produced very healthy, highly functioning children for centuries.”
So keep eating that tofu and overpopulating the world!
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10.17.07
Posted in Fun Facts, Health at 6:06 am by george_lou
Well, New Zealanders are considered Asians, whether they like it or not.
According to The Durex Sexual Wellbeing Global survey, New Zealand females have the most sexual partners. Topping off at 20.4 sexual partners, that’s more than twice the global average of 13.2. That’s way too many.
If that makes you interested in visiting New Zealand, click here.
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10.04.07
Posted in Health at 4:15 pm by telly_wong
Little Timmy unwinds after a long hard day at kindergarten.
Surprise, surprise. Chinese people love to smoke.
A recent study has found that the good people of China make up a quarter of the world’s smokers and consume one-third of the world’s cigarettes.
If you do the math, that adds up to 360 million Chinese smokers, which purchases 42% of the products by the world’s three largest tobacco companies. Beijing-based Horizon Research Consultancy Group, who conducted the study, also found that the average Chinese smoker consumes about 19.3 cigarettes a day and in the four largest cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Wuhan), as many as one in two men are smokers.
However, there is a smidgen of good news: The smoker population is on a slow decline, especially in the more developed urban areas. In the same four cities, the average smoker has cut their tobacco consumption down to mere 16 1/2 cigarettes a day.
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Posted in Health at 3:43 pm by telly_wong
Here’s a story that should bring proud smiles to feminists around the world and looks of bewilderment to the rest of us.
Apparently a 60-year-old single Japanese woman has become pregnant after traveling to the United States to receive a donated fertilized egg.
“She is 60 years old and single. I hesitated in my mind about whether this pregnancy should continue when I thought about the risk and the future of the child,” said doctor Yahiro Netsu, who will be supervising the birth. He has also handled other controversial pregnancies involving surrogate mothers.
The geriatric momma’s situation marks the first time a single woman would give birth to a child from a donated embryo in Japan. Fertility treatment in Japan is provided almost exclusively to married couples.
The woman, whose name has been withheld, is reportedly in her 15th week of pregnancy and has no complications.
No word yet if the father is Japanese.
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08.10.07
Posted in Culture, Health at 1:48 pm by telly_wong
“Mommy, get that thing away from me. I want a Mickey D’s milkshake instead!”
Here at Fallout Central, a common gripe we have is the consistently negative and/or culturally insensitive images of Asians in the American media as we believe it breeds aspiring racists. While critics of our criticism tell us to relax and laugh it off, a recent Stanford University study has discovered some eye-popping new findings about the effects of mass media on the physiological perceptions and responses in young children.
In the study, pre-schoolers aged 3 to 5 were presented with identical McDonald’s foods in name-brand and unmarked wrappers and asked which tasted better. The unmarked foods always lost the challenge. Even carrots in McDonald’s wrappers tasted better than their generically-wrapped counterparts. (!)
Experts blame the relentless onslaught of McDonald’s marketing to impressionable young minds in conditioning these tykes into McLemmings.
If we take these findings a step further, wouldn’t it be possible that in a culture where mocking and berating Asians passes as socially acceptable, popular entertainment (i.e. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, shock jock radio), that children can be subconsciously conditioned to internalize these images and ideas and have them manifest themselves in the form of real-world bigotry and xenophobia? (I’m talking to you “Anti-Asians Anonymous”).
Or perhaps I should just wrap myself up in McDonald’s wax paper the next time I’m in the Fox Chapel High School area.
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