Gaming (#207, Topic M)

Today's Financial Times has an editorial on "Casino Capitalism," with a subtitle "Governments should not bet the economy on gambling." The tone seems to be negative. Good. Then, the cover story in its second section, complete with a big color photo of a roulette table, is entitled "Macao is poised to outshine the Las Vegas strip." I often admire the supposedly God-fearing westerners peddling vice to the world without even blinking. In the 19th century, it was opium; in the 20th, tobacco. In the 21st century, it probably will be gaming. Indeed, yesterday, the popular Mad Money host devoted his hour-long TV program on, using his own words, sin stocks: companies selling alcohol, firearms, and tobacco; in earlier programs, he touted two Las Vegas headquartered companies setting up shop in Macao. Again, using his own words, when there is money to be made, forget about morality. At least he was honest. (In the 19th century, British lawmakers justified the exportation of opium to China on the ground that it was legal in Britain; presumably, to them, legality = morality.) Westerners are fond of horse-racing, as evidenced by spacious race courses built for this activity; some remnants may still be found in Shanghai (when Britain had a settlement after winning the opium war, now used as a park), Hong Kong (a one-time British colony), and Macao (a one-time Portuguese colony). Their justification in engaging horse racing is said to improve the horses' breed, which, of course, is legal. These westerners also accuse Asians in general and Chinese in particular of indulging in gaming; presumably, all these casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City are built for their benefit. Could this be so? If they do frequent these facilities, they probably would be a distinct minority. Most, indeed, refrain from participating in this activity even when they are in their facilities. Some years ago, when my wife was still active, I accompanied her to a conference in Las Vegas. We stayed in a hotel on the strip. While we enjoyed Las Vegas's dinner shows, we did not even play the slot machines. Clearly, we do not fit in, particularly when the easy stereotypes these all-knowing westerners set up for us do not fit. What a pity.

Asian Pacific WWII Atrocity Museum (#206, Topic J)

Anonymous's thoughtful comment to an earlier post on this topic (#204) allows me to add some valuable information. The project to build an Asian Pacific WWII Atrocity Museum was first conceived in 2003, around the time Iris Chang, the well-known author of the best-selling book, The Rape of Nanking, took her own life, forced upon her by people who wanted to revenge for her gallant effort in uncovering this atrocity. Initially, the museum was to focus on Japan's atrocity against the Chinese (along with a different name for the museum). Due to difficulty in soliciting funds from the Chinese community alone (originally estimated at $70+ million, more likely $100+ million), the scope of the proposed museum was enlarged to include, and seek support from, other countries with similar bitter experience -- Korea and ASEAN countries. While the Federal government offered five sites for the proposed museum (it is projected to be built in DC), the inability to raise sufficient funds as seed money caused the project to lose a most desirable one (next to the Vietnam Memorial) to the proposed U.S. Slave museum. That board members working toward seeing the project to fruition are in their 50s, if not 60s or 70s, is another reason to reduce the scale -- from a museum to a park, from a $70+ million budget to $10 million, and from 30 years to 10 years. The reduced scope also allows the board to approach the DC government (easier to implement, as legislative approval is not needed). Sites under consideration are (1) the tip of SW DC (the likelihood of approval is high, but the drawback is that it is too remote), (2) DuPont circle (attractive, but the likelihood of approval is low), (3) the lower end of the Vietnam Memorial (attractive, but parking is impossible), (4) the Lafayette Square opposite the White House (?,?), and perhaps others yet to be evaluated. The board has incorporated the project as a 501(c) entity, meaning that contributions to it are tax-deductible. General membership is merely $20 per year; supporting membership, $200 per year; life membership, $1,000. The project's annual operating budget is only $20,000 -- a mere 100 supporting members would cover this --board members invariably work pro bono, and pay their own expenses as well. Application forms and donations may be sent to CHMUS, Inc., at 10240 Lakewood Drive, Rockville MD 20850. In addition, the project solicits pledges, to be activated when sufficient funds are in the treasury -- at $5,000 (mainly aimed at individuals), $100,000 (business or non-profit entities), and $1,000,000 (business, NPs, and estates). Volunteers are also needed. The application form is simplicity itself -- only name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address are needed. Indeed, it is conceivable that one might merely include a copy of this post -- along with the minimal information and a check -- in lieu of an application form.

Chinese as the universal language (#205, Topic L)

Emily Bazelon has an interesting essay in Slate, an online magazine, reproduced in yesterday's Washington Post. Entitled "It's All Chinese to Your Toddler," the essay's theme is that "human capacity for language is innate," a view first expressed by MIT linguist professor Noam Chomsky and recently reemphasized in Yale linguist Charles Yang's new book, The Infinite Gift: How Children Learn and Unlearn the Languages of the World. One of toddlers' innateness to languages, in my view, is their intuitive logic to word formation, sentence construction, and grammatical structure. In one of Chomsky's books I read a few years back, he had an example where a toddler formed the past tense of catch with catched -- a perfectly logical deduction: if the past tense of a verb -- say, watch -- is formed by adding -ed to that word, why not catch and catched? (Stephen Pinker, in his 2000 book, Words and Rules , used hold and holded/held as an example -- a toddler's reference point, in this case, might be fold.) Adding -ed to form a verb in the past tense is, in Chomsky's words, a form of universal grammar -- that is, it is both innate and logical; forming the past tense of catch as caught and of eat as ate is, in my view, arbitrary rules forced upon a toddler. Another point, made by Bazelon, is that the verb be and its variations is frequently omitted by a toddler -- and, in Chinese, the verb be does not exist. To identify such an omission as "thinking like a speaker of Chinese," as Yang argues, is, in my view, preposterous. A better argument, in my view, is that the speaker -- not necessarily a toddler -- is using his/her innate logic. It is a rare day when a TV anchor -- any anchor -- does not say "This just in" -- short, simple, straight-forward, and effective -- and no verb of any kind is needed. And, of course, in Chinese, as I have posted earlier, the verb form does not change whether to indicate a present tense or a past tense (one infers by using auxiliary words), and the verb be does not exist. These were reasons for Leibniz (1646-1716) to propose Chinese as the univeral language, when he first learned the Chinese language's beauty and simplicity via letters sent to him by Jesuits. Since Chinese is rapidly becoming a must language (a page-plus article in WP 8/26/06 is entitled "With a Changing World Comes An Urgency to Learn Chinese"), perhaps it is time to reopen Leibniz's proposal. Any takers? Let me hear from you by posting a comment to this entry.

Savior of 10000 lives during Rape of Nanking (#204, Topic J)

This noon, I attended a lecture, a progress report on the proposed Asian Pacific WWII Atrocity Museum. Initially, it was to be patterned after the Holocaust Museum and the U. S. Slaves Museum, which took 14 years to complete in the former and is projected to complete over a 20-year period in the latter. The proposed APWAM would probably cost $70+ million and need 30 years, clearly too costly and too time-consuming. Thus, the board decided to scale it down, to a park with a 48' World Peace statue at the center, surrounded by 50 monitors linked to a database. The statue will be a duplicate of the winning entry at the Normandy Peace Museum, completed in 2004 during the 60th anniversary of Normandy landing. (The winning entry was entered by a well-known artist in China, who, lucky for the APWAM, kept the copyright on the statue, and, thus, was able to donate one to this project.) The site will have various tablets honoring those who had suffered from Japanese atrocity. As to the Rape of Nanking, an important component of the project, in addition to a link in the database, several persons cited in Iris Chang's best-selling book, The Rape of Nanking, will be honored, including Chang herself. Among other honorees, one will be Minnie Vautrin, dean of studies at Ginling Women's Arts and Science College. Well covered in Chang's book (at pp 129-139, 186-7), Vautrin declined to be repatriated shortly before the Japanese invaded Nanking (now Nanjing). As a result, the American consulate gave her a U.S. flag to be placed on the campus to signify that it was U.S. property. Vautrin put the flag to good use, and allowed some 10,000 Chinese residents to occupy the camps and, thus, saved their lives. Still, she was abused by the Japanese soldiers, which "took a deeper psychic toll on her." She kept a diary (valuable to Chang's research), the last one was dated April 14, 1940, saying that "I'm about at the end of my energy." (pp 186-7) Two weeks later, she suffered a nervous breakdown, necessitating her to be repatriated to U.S. for medical attention. During the trans-Pacific voyage, she attempted several times to jump over the ship. She succeeded in taking her life on May 14, 1941. According to today's lecturer, the president of APWAM, she was upset that her God would allow such atrocity be committed -- one of her diary entries said: "Oh, God, control the cruel beastliness of the soldiers of Nanking tonight." (p 137) A sad end to a true friend of China. In particular, I appreciated her soothing words to those fortunate enough to be on her campus: "Don't you people worry. Japan will fail. China will not perish." (p 137) How prescient! We look forward to the day that your name is honored in the APWAM.

Assimilation, acceptance, or tolerance? (#203, Topic A)

The macaca incident (#199) has generated at least one newspaper story a day for the last two weeks. From reading them, it became clear that the 20-year-old college senior of East Indian descent, addressed as a macaca by the senator, was born in that state -- in other words, he is a native of his state. By comparison, the senator who addressed the Indian-American as macaca and who greeted him with "Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia" was a transplanted Californian. Indeed, the senator's father was, at one time, the football coach at U of Southern California. At that time, I was an assistant professor at USC; their house, in the Baldwin Hills section of LA, was on the opposite side of the same street as my mentor's, then the chair of USC's Asian Studies department, whom I visited from time to time. Still, it was the transplanted Californian who considers himself a native son of Virginia, while the native-born Indian-American is considered a visitor. Why so? Simple. People from Asia have physical features so different from European-Americans that, regardless of the length of their stay in USA, are invariably considered visitors, or perhaps, squatters. People of Asian descent (along with those from Africa), because of their physical features, can never be assimilated. What they - at least I -- want to see is that they -- at least I -- be tolerated. It is probably asking too much that they be accepted. The People's Daily Overseas Edition 8/22/06, received today, reports an incident, in NYC's Queens on 8/12/06, where two European-American youths used unbecoming language to insult 4 young Chinese-Americans, then drove their car toward the latter, inflicting minor injury to one and serious injury to another. This is not even tolerance, even though both groups of youths have equal rights to be where they were. Certainly the world's only superpower, which considers exporting human rights as a top priorty, can set a good example at home.

Rationale for starting the Opium War (#202, Topic H)

Earlier, I wrote about the opium trade (#140) and Commissioner Lin Zexu (#141), who was directed by the emperor to eradicate opium smuggled to China by Britain's East India Company. Last week, my brother-in-law, a fifth-generation descendant of Lin, sent me a box of 20+ books on Lin, which he collected over the years and which, he felt, could serve as the nucleus of a biography on Lin. So, I started to do some preliminary research. Yesterday, at the Library of Congress, I came across an obscure book, touting how the British missionary was able to penetrate into China. The book was revised in 1843, mainly to append two chapters at the end to rationalize the just concluded Opium War (1839/40 - 1842). The wording was so clever that I could not resist the temptation not to quote it.
"That the smuggling of opium into China was wrong, and that the Chinese had a perfect right to stop its importation was freely admitted; but that after forty years winking at it, they [the Chinese government] should adopt such unjust and unheard of measures [requiring that the smuggled opium be given up or risking incarceration], throwing into confinement and threatening with death foreign residents, innocent and guilty, in defiance of all the customs of the civilized nations, was not to be tolerated.
"The events which we have detailed [in the first of the two appended chapters] took place in 1839. In the meantime, the English government had resolved upon its course, and in February 1840, Lord Auckland, at Calcutta, declared war against the Chinese." (Jacob Abbott, China and the English, Cooperstown: Phiney, 1843, p 277).
These British missionaries talked big about being civilized; in reality, they were merely fronts to money-sucking schemes, capable of stooping to great depth, subjugating or destroying lives in the name of making a pound sterling. Not long ago, a British denomination confessed that it was trafficking in African slave trade for over 190 years, which it kept secret for all these years. So much for western civilization. And, of course, starting a war for bringing this shameful money-sucking scheme to an end is something only the western civilization would be proud of. In Abbott's account, "the quantity [of opium] given up was over 20,000 chests [each containing 150 pounds], which were valued nine million dollars!" Perhaps Abbott lamented about the loss of nine million dollars, a large sum truly unheard of at the time. Still, it was merely two-thirds of opium smuggled into China in one year, 1837 -- "30,000 chests", using Abbott's understated figure. Jacques Gernet gave the figure of "at least 40,000 cases" in 1838 -- and of 58,000 cases in 1850, of 96,000 cases in 1873 (#140) -- more than $42 million! On this count, Karl Marx may be excused for expressing this sentiment, in an article he wrote ("The Opium Trade," Swan, 3 September 1858; Marx was a journalist then) "flagrant self-contradiction of the Christianity-canting and civilization-mongering British Government."

Index to #161- #200 (#200.X, Topic O)

A - 散沙受人欺 [Loose sand ~ much insults] 197, Macaca 199
B - 五十步笑一百步 [50-stepper ~ 100-stepper] 185
C - Confucius Institute 165
D - "Hoarding task force" 161, "Furniture suppliers" 170, 心定自然涼 [Heart at ease ~ coolness] 181, Live and let live on golf course 186, "Sleeping driver" 192
E - "17 and burned out" 191
F - "Responsible stakeholder" 164, Which country will dominate in 21st century? 181
G - Andre Agassi 171
H - Athenian democracy 188, 弱國無外交 [Weak states ~ no diplomacy] 196
I - Mah-Jong 163, China's inventions 168, Kriegspiel 174
J - "Rape of Nanking" documentary 190, Yasukuni again 200
K - 人逢佳節倍思親 [Festive occasions ~ longing for parents] 183, Dragon: East vs West 198
L - refusing service for not ordering in English 162, speaking Chinese in foreign land 166, 犬子 Hazards of translation 175, Birds, geese, deer 187
M - $585 million fraud 184, Phishing 194
N - Marshall Field's 177, Chateau Frontenac 182, Whittier Woods Elementary 195
O - Blogging 179, Life story or blogs? 189
P - Value: East vs West 178
Q - An Asian's questions 167, Can human race survive? 169, Love and loyalty 172, What is democracy? 173, What is democracy? - II 176

Yasukuni - here we go again (#200, Topic J)

Last Tuesday (8/15/06), the anniversary of Japan's surrender to the allies during WWII,, Japan's prime minister Junichiro Koizumi visited the Yasukuni shrine, where Japan's war dead, including 14 of its top war criminals, were enshrined (#59, 1/31/06). Said to fulfill his electioneering promise, to many, including me, these visits are a painful reminder of Japan's unrepentant militarism. In any case, he has succeeded in jolting my memory. It was in the 1970s. After I accepted an invitation to join as a partner in an international CPA firm headquartered in Manila, I was invited to visit its home office. I had never been to the Phillipines before, so I took advantage of this visit to do some sightseeing. With the taxi service not known for its reliability, the managing partner assigned a chauffeur-driven limousine at my disposal. The chauffeur suggested that I visit a cemetery where soldiers died while in military service were buried (much like the Arlington Cemetery in DC), so I did. After I was dropped at the curb, I had to walk perhaps 100 steps to the gated entrance. About half-way to the gate, I was stopped by one of the staff members, who asked: "Are you Japanese?" A negative response alone did not seem to be enough, who then asked me the purpose of my visit to the Phillipines in general and to the cemetery in particular. Satisfied with my response, I was allowed in. Afterward, I asked others about the reason of my being asked my ethnicity. I was told that the local residents had a painful recollection of Japanese military personnel's brutality and had a policy of not allowing anyone of Japanese ancestry to visit the cemetery -- many buried there were probably tortured to death by these militarists. I was very impressed by the response. Nineteen seventies were a good quarter of a century from the WWII years, but memory lingers. One may forgive, but one must never forget.

Macaca (#199, Topic A)

Yesterday's Washington Post carries a front-page story on a Republican senator, in a reelection campaign before 100+ of his supporters last Friday, publicly addressed a volunteer for his opponent as a macaca. According to WP, a macaca is "either a monkey that inhibits the Eastern Hemisphere or a town in South Africa." Since the volunteer, a 20-year old senior at the state's leading university (and one of the "25 New Ivies" in Newsweek 8/25/06), came from India, the senator apparently meant the former. And he used the term not once, not twice, but many times. Since the 100+ in the audience were all European-Americans -- WP described the audience at "lily white" -- each time the senator uttered the word, the audience laughed, evidently wanting more. Encouraged, the senator added: "Welcome to America and the real world of Virigina." Exactly what this sentence means is unclear. The first three words, Welcome to America, can, it seems to me, be uttered by native Americans only -- after all, European-Americans were immigrants at one time. As to the real world of Virginia -- on other occasions the senator used the term Virginia value --, it is a coded reference to good old days when slavery was cherished, and "lily white" was a matter of course. Today's WP, in a follow-up story, added that the senator had "a youthful admiration of the Confederate flag" -- but, in preparation for running as a presidential candidate in 2008, had "introduced symbolic anti-lynching legislation in the senate and promised to lead the charge for an official apology for slavery." Now, his true color is showing -- WP's headline says: "[Senator's name] Tries to Minimize Damage From Remarks." I always know that, despite my 50+ years residency in USA, I am merely tolerated. When chips are down, when our hosts (meaning native-bor European-Americans) show their true colors, I expect to be ridiculed and publicly embarrassed, as the senator did to this volunteer with some 10 years of residency in the senator's home state.

Dragon in China vs. Dragon in West (#198; Topic K)

Yesterday, the Chinese Club in our retirement community honored a resident-cum-teacher for a Chinese painting and calligraphy course she just concluded for her fellow residents. A reception was followed by lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant. Sitting next to me at lunch was a lady of Scandinavian decent. Seeing placemats featuring the Chinese zodiac, she asked: What is my sign? To answer it, I must know the year in which she was born. She happened to be born in the same year as I, but eight months my senior. We are Dragons. While waiting for food, I mentioned to her that, in the west, dragon is not viewed favorably, depicting it as vicious, etc., while in China, dragon is viewed as the supreme among animals -- emperors were referred to as dragons. It is an instance where the custom in China and that in the west are diametrically opposite. Another example is the gown worn by the bride in wedding. In the west, the gown is invariably white -- to suggest, perhaps, purity. This is not so in China, where the color associated with wedding is red -- to suggest good luck and prosperity. What can be better than these? (Recently, Vera Wang, a well known designer of wedding gowns of Chinese ancestry, has a collection of wedding gowns featuring red; they look gorgeous. So, slowly, the west is persuaded to the Chinese way of thinking.) White, in China, is invariably associated with death -- in a funeral, one only sees white and black. Come to think of it, except for the wedding gown, white is not favorably regarded in the west either -- white lie, white wash, white elephant, white flag, white ant, white sale. But red is -- red blooded, red carpet, Red Cross.

散沙受人欺 [Loose sand ~ much insults] (#197, Topic A)

My entry yesterday is entitled 弱國無外交(#196), dealing with matters at the state level. Another entry I very much like to do for a long time -- this one -- deals with similar matters at the personal level. Thus, the two entries are parallel; it would be nice if, as title to this entry, I could find a saying in Chinese to parallel yesterday's in content and in word construction. I could not find one in Chinese (only the first two words are ok), but my concoction in the English version is much better (all five words are in parallel form); the latter may be translated as "loose sand invites much insults." A couple of days ago, a well known movie producer, when detained for driving under the influence in LA, assuming that the arresting police was of Jewish ancestry, uttered words uncomplimentary to Jews. This was duly reported, arousing complaints by Jewish-American groups around the country, which are both well organized and influential. This outcry forced the producer to apologize, and apologize again (when the first one was deemed inadequate), and apologize yet again (when the second one was also deemed inadequate). Earlier this year, an editor in a Danish newspaper published a dozen cartoons uncomplimentary to people of the Islamic faith. This was duly reported, arousing complaints by people of the Islamic faith, first in Denmark, then in Europe and Middle East. With the editor refusing to apologize (invoking "freedom of the press"), people of Islamic faith countered with boycott, refusing to buy goods produced in Denmark (Danish cheese had/has? a commanding presence in Middle East). With the editor refusing to budge (he was, however, asked to take a paid leave of absence), it was Danish prime minister who apologized. A few years ago, Weekly Standard, an influential political publication headquartered in DC and edited by a staff well known for their neoconservative leanings, published, on its cover, a carton uncomplimentary to people of Chinese ancestry. Was there a similar reaction among Chinese Americans? Of course not. There was no reporting, no outcry, no reaction of any kind. This is not so in China. Not long ago, VW (which held the #1 position in sales in China in 2005) had a TV ad which made fun of people taking the public transportation; complaints by the local citizenry forced the company to drop the ad. KFC (one of the very first western companies setting up shop in China) had a TV ad depicting a young man failing a college entrance examination, while two others, munching fried chicken, fared much better. Complaints forced the company to change the ending -- the young man also did well despite his not being fed fried chicken. The moral of the stories? Loose sand invites much insults. Strong response forces apologies and remedies.

弱國無外交 [Weak states ~ no diplomacy] (#196, Topic H)

Today's Washington Post's headline reads: "U.S., France Agree On Plan to Halt Lebanon Fighting - Beirut, Hezbollah Balk at U.N. Terms." This reminds of a Chinese saying, which is the title of today's entry. It may be translated as: "Weak states conduct no diplomacy." In the early part of the 20th century, China was a weak country -- she still is, now known as a developing country. After WWI, the League of Nations, the U.N. at the time, had meetings after meetings, mainly to decide on how the world should be carved among the powers. At that time, Germany had territorial concessions from China -- as I noted, China was a weak country. With Germany defeated, one would think that Germany's concessions in China would be returned to China. Perish the thought. The powers had better ideas; they gave these concessions to Japan. Why? No reason -- at least none was communicated to China. Was China at the negotiation table when such decisions were made? At, no; on, yes. China was not at the table; China was on the table. If these powers sitting around the table were gourmets, China was a dish placed on the table, ready to be carved and dished out as those sitting around the table saw fit. Did China object? Of course, China had its diplomatic delegation at the League of Nations. But, 弱國無外交; the Chinese delegation was not there to participate in the decision making; the delegation was there to receive whatever the powers decided. Today's WP ends with a quote from a scholar at Brookings (as well as at U of Maryland): "They ['primarily France and the United States'] have been doing it [drafting a U.N. resolution] in a vacuum; they haven't been talking to Hezbollah. And Hezbollah is a key party here." So, this Chinese saying, which was true in the 20th century, remains so in the 21st century.

Phishing (#194, Topic M)

A couple of days ago, I received an e-mail, purported to be from the Internal Revenue Service, stating that, based on its calculation, there is a refund of $60+ waiting for me. All I need to do was to click on a link provided -- which, were I to click it, would, undoubtedly, ask for my address and social security number. Smart and innovative -- but, as applied to me, unworkable. Why so? Simple. I am ashamed to admit it, but I have yet to file our income tax return for 2005 -- how could I get a refund when the tax return on which it is based is not yet in? (I still have 12 days to do it, ha, ha, ha.) The first time I received a phishing e-mail was probably 2 or 3 years ago, purported to be from Best Buy, wanting to verify my SSN regarding a TV I had bought. At first I was puzzled, since I did not buy one. Then, I remembered that, a week or so earlier, shopping for a TV for our condo at the beach, I wrote an e-mail to Best Buy asking if it had a store near our condo and, if so, whether it could deliver to our unit. At that time, phishing was probably very new. When I went to a Best Buy store to inquire, the store personnel were rather excited. They had received similar inquiries, had taken actions to delete the offensive links, and asked me not to click to them, which I dutifully complied. The most sophisticated phishing I have received so far was also the most recent. On the internet, someone was offering a free laptop; all one needed to do was to go through a few webpages. Curious, I clicked to the website. It asked for my address. Fair enough. How could one ship a laptop without an address? No social security number. Nice, nothing to worry. To qualify for the $2,500 laptop, one does have to spend some money -- buy two items from about a dozen listed. The first item is a package of potato chips -- a mere dollar or two; the second item has a similar cost. By that time, I began to wonder. What's the gimmick? A thought occurred to me -- the laptop is prewired; as soon as one uses it, every key stroke (such as one's SSN) would be relayed to the generous donor. Truly smart and innovative. But, again, I was not a good candidate. I clicked onto that website out of curiosity; I knew I would not want the laptop being offered. Why? Two reasons. One, I already have a laptop. One is all I need. Two, the laptop has a Japanese brand name -- I do not want to own anything Japanese.

"Sleeping driver" (#192, Topic D)

Today's Washington Post reports "Sleeping Va. Driver Convicted in Crash" as one of front-page stories in its Metro section. This reminds of an incident, in the early-1960s, when we were living in Huntington Beach CA, and when I was driving a VW Beattle. One night, my wife and I were dinner guests at the beautiful Baldwin Hills residence of Professor Theodore Chen and Mrs. Chen -- standing in their backyard and looking at thousands of city lights in night time was an unforgettable experience. Dr. Chen, at the time, held the informal title of "dean of Chinese faculty" at the University of Southern California -- he was both the most senior in rank (as chairman of USC's Asian Studies department) as well as in age. On that occasion, all guests were USC faculty members -- except us. While I was a lowly assistant professor at USC from 1956-60, I left USC for Cal State Fullerton in 1960; when our son was born in July of that year, we needed more income, and CSF offered me both a promotion (to associate professor) and an increase in salary. We were invited to Dr and Mrs Chen's parties probably because, back in 1956, they introduced me to my wife and they represented my family when we were married. LA was/is 30+ miles away from Huntington Beach; the driving time was 45 minutes. That evening, on the way home, I felt very drowsy. While driving on the San Diego Freeway, for a split second, I closed my eyes. If I kept my eyes closed, I probably would doze off, not unlike the driver in today's WP. Luckily, I opened my eyes, and was relieved that our car was still in its path. Knowing that my wife was unable to drive a manual-shift car, I steeled myself and managed to drive home without further incident. I dared not mention this to my wife, not then, not now. But, this incident was on my mind all these 40+ years. Since I mentioned that I would view blogging as an alternative to writing life stories (#189), let me sneak this blog in so that my mind would be relieved of this burden from this day onward.

"17 and all burned out": Really? (#191, Topic E)

U.S. News & World Report, 8/7/06, under a headline shown as the title of this entry, carries an interview with the authoress of The Overachievers (2006), a Yale graduate out of Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda. Since this is the same combination our daughter has experienced, the story has more than passing interest to me. In 1972, on leave from the University of Washington to accept a position as an Associate Director of the Cost Accounting Standards Board, a government agency, I learned that the best high school in this area was/is Whitman. We decided to look for housing in that school district, even though I did not expect either our son (in junior high) or our daughter (in elementary school) to attend Whitman during my planned 2-year leave of absence. Finding a house for rent near Whitman was impossible -- there were simply no listings. Perforce, we bought a house a block and half from Whitman, with our son going to Pyle Junior High and our daughter to Whittier Woods Elementary, both within walking distance from our house. As CASB wanted me to remain after 2 years, I resigned my professorship to remain in Washington. That we bought, instead of rented, a house saved us not only a lot of headache (no need to find permanent housing) but also, in time, a handsome capital gain -- for all these, we must thank Whitman: Whitman forced us to buy, and Whitman allowed us to profit from it. (Jim Cramer, in his daily "Mad Money" TV program, talks about the best of the breed. In schooling, Whitman is clearly it.) Whitman, when our children were students, had a dedicated principal, Dr. Marcos. There were many open houses, allowing parents to visit their children's classes. And there were PTA meetings, which we attended with regularity. Whitman parents seemed to take a keen interest in their children's schooling; in one instance, I saw Don Rumsfeld, a cabinet member then as now, sitting awkwardly in a small chair intended for students. Was/is Whitman as competitive as our authoress describes it? -- she said: "Education is no longer about a learning experience; it's a game of Survivor where kids are strategizing to work against each other and beat the system" (emphasis original). I don't think so. Our children's fellow students we met were all friendly and courteous. Were/are they drinkers? That is news to me, since the school had/has strict rules. In any case, since both my wife and I are teetotallers, our children did not seem to deviate from the example we set. Did/do they have a lot of family pressure? We certainly did not. We were confident that our children are not only college material, but postgraduate material as well (after Whitman, our son went to another Ivy League school, Penn; they both earned MBA from Penn's Wharton school, voted as the world's best business school). When in school, we wanted them to focus on studying and on related extracurricular activities. Except for serving as library pages in Montgomery County library system on occasional Saturdays, we did not want them to divert their attention and energy to money-making activities. Perhaps, with the passage of time, things have changed? I doubt it.