Watch:
- LOVE: Wichita, KS breaks ground for a combo American/S. Vietnamese veterans memorial in their downtown. Leave it to a flyover state to set the bar for Tolerance 'n' Healing.
- HATE: Lawsuits and complaints are piling up against the Burbank police department,
including one from a Japanese American cop who claims he was fired in
retaliation for complaining of racial discrimination. Seriously though:
Burbank? Not usually a name that strikes fear in the hearts of any.
- LOVE: It's official: Obama has an Asian fetish. He's larding his ranks (can we say "larding" now? It's definitely "larding," no?) with yet anuvver aZn (this time Koream), while his tech czar Aneesh Chopra, is recruiting fellow Desis in Silicon Valley.
- LOVE/HATE: The US and Canada have gotten together (again!) to plead with Iran to resolve missing/detained American/Canadian citizens in Iran. Buddy system or ganging up?
- HATE: Asian Americans are health-uninsured at a rate of 1 in 6 overall (and 1 in 4 for Pacific Islanders), and Koreams especially (1 in 3.) Apparently there are elderly immigrants who regret the move because their health care was better back home!
- LOVE: The Asian American CEO of Royal Asian Bank, which serves Pennsylvania's Koream community, is buying the bank himself! I guess the banking crisis has opened up opportunities for some. Nice work if you're rich enough to buy it.
- LOVE/HATE: The New York Times loves them some stereotype! A humorless filial daughter accompanies her father on a trip to Confucius' hometown. CHINGchingchingching CHONGchong CHING ching CHONNGGGG!!! 'Course, there's also this interesting "tour" of Manhattan's Chinatown.
- RECONCILIATION: The US Gov has dropped charges against Laotian (now American) Gen. Vang Pao for conspiring to overthrow Laos' communist government. I have NO COMMENT.
- WEIRDNESS: The Naperville, IL Indian American community is trying to get two headless Hindu stone icons out of the river, where they were presumably dumped, either as a "result of theft or ritual icon retirement." Okay, for the record, if I were a god, I'd rather be a Buddhist or a Judaeo-Christian deity, where you might get cut up in a war, but you don't get ritually retired by being dumped in a river.
- WEEPING: CNN has a profile of a New York Pakistani American woman who has dedicated herself to helping battered Muslim American women. Robina Niaz started her service after 9/11 when she realized that the backlash against Muslim American communities would have an adverse effect on women trying to leave abusive marriages. She stresses that there's no more domestic abuse in Muslim communities than others, just maybe more denial, and that the Quran prohibits abuse of women. She sounds kick ass.
- SOMEBODY DIES: Raymond Clark III, the suspect in the murder of Yale grad student Annie Le, was a member of the "Asian Awareness Club" in high school (how aware?), and had a former girlfriend call the police on him for forcing her to have sex with him (when did we stop calling this "rape"?) Creeeeeeeepy.
It's must-see TV!
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