As many news organizations such as CNN are reporting, North Korea has just announced that it has agreed to give up its entire nuclear program, after initially demanding that it retain the right to develop its civilian sector use of nuclear energy:

“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning at an early date to the treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons and to IAEA safeguards,” the statement said. . . .

The joint statement also includes a pledge that Pyongyang and Washington will “respect each other’s sovereignty, exist peacefully together and take steps to normalize their relations” — a considerable change in the tone in relations between the nations. . . . In exchange, the United States, China, Japan, Russian and South Korea have “stated their willingness” to provide energy assistance to North Korea, as well as promote economic cooperation. . . .

A Bush administration official told CNN that Pyongyang’s promise is significant, but noted the North Koreans must show they will allow for verification, including rejoining the international nuclear inspections regime which would allow International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to re-enter the country.

As with most observers, I think this is a very promising development, perhaps even a breakthrough. But I happen to agree with the administration in this case, that promises are one thing, but actual follow-through and implementation will be something else. However, it does seem as though North Korea’s leaders are sincere this time, as they have been easing their approach towards the west and the U.S. in recent months. We’ll have to hope that this will work out to everyone’s benefit.

From a demographic point of view, it is only a matter of time before any given Asian American enclave becomes too crowded. After that happens, Asian Americans will then inevitably disperse and move into new areas, creating new Asian American communities. This has happened in southern California, the New York City metro area, and now, as the Philadelphia Inquirer reports, is apparently starting to happen in northwest Philadelphia:

Immigration advocates have long argued that Philadelphia, a former hub for factories and foreigners, could stem its population loss by recruiting immigrants. Other cities, such as Boston, have used immigration as a strategy for urban renewal. It appears immigrants are arriving even without a plan to lure them. According to a U.S. Census Bureau report released last week, the foreign-born last year were 11 percent of the city population, a jump from 9 percent in 2000.

In Oxford Circle and other areas of the Northeast, cheaper housing appears to be the draw. At least four realty agencies have opened near Cottman Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard in the last two years. The Chinese characters on their storefronts hint at marked ethnic change in the neighborhood. . . . Brokers say rowhouses that would have fetched $80,000 in early 2004 now go for double that. Almost all the buyers are Chinese-born New Yorkers. . . .

The influx has been so dramatic that nearby Solis-Cohen Elementary School converted book closets into classrooms and added two trailers in a parking lot for 250 more students – half of them new residents. “The people who’ve resided here for a long time are passing away or moving to retirement communities,” said Joseph Baum, the school’s principal. “And they are being replaced by families with children.”

The article also notes that in this case, it wasn’t just overcrowding and exorbitant housing prices that pushed many Asian Americans out of New York City — it was also the economic fallout as a result of September 11, 2001. Further, as with any form of cultural or in this case residential change, there’s bound to be some resistance, conflict, or hostility from long-term residents of the neighborhood.

We’ll have to see if history repeats itself or if a more orderly form of integration and assimilation takes place — on both sides.

CBS News has an article that describes the growing cultural divide in China — on the one hand, young, urban, and upwardly mobile citizens who care more about material success and comfort than political democracy, and on the other, poor, rural, and older workers who are increasingly fed up with the rampant corruption and bureaucracy of the communist party:

There was a theory that a richer China would create a generation more liberal and more demanding of democracy. But this post-Tiananmen Square 1989-protest generation grew up with no great interest in politics. Politics, many feel, is a bunch of old guys on TV — the past. This generation seems far more focused on making money and yearns not for more democracy but a bigger apartment and a wider-screen TV. . . .

[On the other hand, in many tiny rural villages], indifference has given way to outright antagonism. We recently visited with activist Yang Maodong. He is involved in a peasant protest at a small village where farmers gave up their land, but allegedly corrupt local officials kept the compensation that farmers were promised for the land.

It’s a battle — riots, hunger strikes and all — against what farmers see as official corruption. How ironic — the Party that came to power as a peasant revolt could end up losing power because the peasants are turning against its corruption and distance from ordinary people.

In addition, a separate article by Reuters describes how a recent killing spree by an angry migrant worker who was denied back wages by his company has focused even more attention on the plight and abuses suffered by China’s “have-nots.”

I see this growing cultural divide in China as another example of the power of capitalism to produce inevitable social stratification in whatever political system in which it operates. Whether it’s in a democracy like the U.S. or a communist dictatorship like China, capitalism will always produce a growing gap between the rich and the poor.

Will this growing gap take down China’s communist regime sometime in the future? I doubt it, but you never know. Stranger things have happened . . .

Two stories in the news recently caught my eye, both dealing with proposed legislation that many Asian American-owned small businesses say would hurt their livelihoods. The interesting irony in both of these cases is that the proposed legislation was drafted and advocated by Asian American politicians.

In the first example, reported by AsianWeek Magazine, describes proposed legislation in California that would tighten sanitation and safety requirements for nail salons, introduced by State Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Leland Yee. This follows several highly-publicized incidents where customers — most notably Paula Abdul — suffered bacterial infections due to unsanitary instruments and practices.

The second example, as reported by the Queens Chronicle, New York City Korean grocers are upset at legislation proposed by City Councilman John Liu that requires sidewalk displays in front of grocery stores not to obstruct sidewalks and pedestrians. The grocers complain that Liu purposely introduced the proposal so that they would not have enough time to respond to it.

Neither of these two news articles mention anything about the fact that the “anti-Asian” proposals were created by Asian American politicians. In both cases, the proposed legislation was authored by Chinese Americans and would supposedly hurt Korean businesses the most. This leads to the question, does race/ethnicity — or more specifically interethnic rivalry between members of different Asian groups — have anything to do with it?

Or can it be that these Asian American politicians are directly or indirectly trying to demonstrate that they can serve non-Asian constituents just as well as their Asian ones, and that indeed, they’re not afraid to challenge members of their own community in order to “serve the public good?”

I can only speculate at this point, but I would think that both Chinese American politicians are acutely aware of the interethnic and interracial issues involved here, even if it may not be their primary motivations. At least on the surface, the proposed laws do not seem unreasonable to me. However, the bottom line is that politicians — whatever their racial/ethnic background — need to ensure that any such laws are applied consistently to Asians and non-Asians alike.

Those of you who have been following the issue of labor outsourcing know that the country at the epicenter of the global economic phenemenon is India, which boasts cheap labor and a well-educated labor force. However, CNN/Money Magazine has an article that suggests India’s outsourcing boom may be ending soon due to rising wages and a developing labor shortage:

A new report from market research firm Gartner, Inc. warns that a labor crunch and rising wages could erode as much as 45 percent of India’s market share by 2007. Indian industry watchers acknowledge that the country’s outsourcing industry — its golden goose of the moment — is indeed facing a “serious” problem. . . .

More importantly, the Gartner report cautions that a host of emerging countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Eastern European nations including Hungary and Poland, are also starting to challenge India’s leadership in offshore business process outsourcing (BPO). . . Gartner estimates that India’s current 85 percent ownership of the BPO market share could dwindle to about 45 percent by 2007.

The article notes that four years ago, the average Indian call center employee earned the equivalent of about US$125 a month. These days, the average wage is about US$180 and that while this increase in wages is not a threat to India yet, if it keeps rising, India may soon experience what Ireland went through about ten years ago when it was the darling of the outsourcing world before wages got too high and companies moved their outsourcing to India.

Not terribly surprising, all in all. Capitalism does not care about this country or that country — it simply wants to find the lowest wages available. Today that is India and China. Years from now, it’s likely to be some other developing country — it’s only a matter of time.

I was browsing through AngryAsianMan.com and saw that he had this link to a story about what Jason Scott Lee has been doing recently. You might remember Jason as playing Bruce Lee in the movie “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story,” one of the few major Hollywood productions in the last 15 years or so that had an Asian American man and a White woman in lead romantic roles.

It turns out that Jason has pretty much dropped out of the Hollywood acting scene and instead, is living a relatively primative life (i.e., no electricity, running water, or flush toilet) near a volcano in Hawaii:

In the early ’90s, Lee was the wonder boy of Asian-American actors, wowing audiences with his emotional intensity and physical power in many quality roles. . . . He had five bona fide romantic leads, a major achievement for an Asian actor in Hollywood. Lee loves acting. But even more, he has another dream: He wants to leave his mark other than on the stage or screen. . . .

Turning his back on Hollywood — he dropped his manager and agent — he focused on yet another dream: to build a small performing arts venue for professional-quality, socially conscious plays, workshops and classes. He also hoped to have cast members and instructors live there with him. . . . For his film work, Lee chooses projects that have some significance while providing the income he needs to maintain [his house and land].

I’ve got to hand it to Jason for putting his money where his mouth is. A lot of actors portray themselves as “politically active” or “socially conscious” — right before they drive off in their six figure luxury SUVs to have dinner at a hundred dollar a plate restaurant. But Jason is clearly different — and truly sincere and genuine about his beliefs.

Way to go, my brother!

You’ve probably heard of the reality TV show “What Not to Wear.” Well, maybe someone should profile Lafayette High School in Brooklyn as “What Not to Do” in terms of supporting the equal education of Asian Americans. As Newsday reports, the Bush administration has just brought federal civil rights charges against Lafayette High, alleging that it failed to address racially-motivated violence against Asian American students and therefore, has violated their rights to a public education:

An Asian student who was a freshman at the Brooklyn school was punched on his way home in April, but administrators refused to investigate or to let anyone look at a student photo book to identify attackers, according to the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in Manhattan.

Among other cases involving Asian students this past school year, one boy was choked by a classmate in the boys’ locker room, and another boy complained that administrators told him they had lost the paperwork on his report.

“An atmosphere has been bred at the school where students feel free to harass Asian students without much retribution,” the group’s attorney, Khin Mai Aung, said Friday. “It’s been going on for years and nothing has been done to effectively fix things.”

At first glance, my reaction is that I can’t believe Asian American students are still subjected to this kind of treatment. It’s one thing to be the target of a racially-motived physical attack. What conpounds the misery even more is when the people who are entrusted to protect your rights and well-being ignore your complaints and instead, actually make it easier for you to be repeatedly victimized.

The irony is that this high school is not located in some isolated rural community where 98% of the students are White — it’s located in Brooklyn, NY — perhaps the most racially/ethnically diverse city in the entire U.S. and where one-quarter of the students are of Asian descent. Absolutely amazing . . .

As CBS News reports, the trial of Chai Soua Vang, the Hmong American accused of killing six Whites after a hunting confrontation in Wisconsin, is set to begin this week. In an earlier post, I commented that Vang’s defense is that he was subjected to numerous racial taunts and epitaths during the confrontation and that he only shot back in self-defense after one of the White hunters first shot at him.

The article notes that while the trial will be conducted in the same county as the shootings, the jury pool was moved to a different country due to publicity and “possible racial animosity,” which has many local residents upset:

Jury selection was moved to Dane County — home of the state Capitol and the University of Wisconsin-Madison — because of concern about pretrial publicity and possible racial animosity. The jurors will be bused to Hayward for testimony.

Some residents of the region wonder if they will get justice. Madison is vastly different from this rural, slow-paced area that is the home of the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame. “The guy admitted he shot people in the back,” said Larry Jarvela, mayor of Rice Lake, where the victims were from. “Some people are upset that they are going to bring all the liberals up from Madison for the jury.”

This trial has all the makings of a bad made-for-TV drama. In the end, even with the potential of a few more “liberal” jurors from Madison, I don’t think it looks good for Vang. As I noted in my earlier post, he may have suffered years of racial prejudice and abuse by Whites in Wisconsin and this particular incident was the last straw, but his reaction — especially how he shot several of the victims in the back — was extreme to say the least.

This case is a pretty sad tragedy for both sides.

Update:
On September 16, 2005, Vang was indeed found guilty on six counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. Vang will now spend the rest of his life in jail with no possibility of parole (Wisconsin does not have the death penalty).

Did you hear about the young Vietnamese American woman who was flashed by a White guy who was masturbating while riding the NYC subway with her? While he was whipping out his tool, she was whipping out her own tool — her camera phone, and snapped some pictures of him to show the police.

She later posted it to her Flickr page and after the police questioned a local restaurant owner, other women came forward alleging that he did the same thing to them. The police recently arrested the alleged pervert and will charge him with public lewdness.

Two lessons here:
(1) Contrary to popular stereotypes, this particular Asian American woman was clearly not the meek and submissive type — way to go, Thao!
(2) Perverts should think twice before they pull an Asian fetish stunt like that because as Thao clearly demonstrated, many of us are quite adept at using technology to our advantage.

As reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune, police are investigating a death of a young Asian American student, Kenny Luong, who was participating in a fraternity-related football game involving California Polytechnic University Pomona and U.C. Irvine students. Witnesses describe that the activity was “a hazing disguised as a football game.” Luong apparently died from massive head injuries.

Simple hazing is a misdemeanor, said Police Lt. Jeff Love. But if hazing leads to a death, those responsible could face felony manslaughter or homicide charges, he said. “Given the fact that it was part of a pledging activity, we wanted to make sure,” he said, adding that detectives were interviewing players and spectators Tuesday.

Luong and the other pledges attended California Polytechnic University, Pomona, where they wanted to start a Lambda Phi Epsilon chapter, Love said. The would-be fraternity members decided to scrap those plans, Dai said. The UC Irvine chapter has been placed on “interim emergency suspension,” said university spokesman Jim Cohen.

Pretty tragic news. My sympathies go out to Kenny’s family and friends. At the same time, I am rather disgusted to see another incident in which Asian American fraternity members apparently acted with the same level of ignorance, stupidity, carelessness, and utter disregard for human dignity and safety that we normally associate with White fraternities.

It just goes to show that the power of someone’s social and organizational environment can override whatever good sense is supposedly associated with being Asian.

You’ve probably seen the images of a devastated New Orleans and its desperate residents. Perhaps you’ve also heard that for whatever reasons, emergency help and relief supplies have been very slow in getting to those in need. Like a growing number of sociologists and other observers, I’d like to wonder aloud about the race/class dynamics of this tragedy and the recent events surrounding it.

New Orleans (NO) is a heavily Black city — more than one-third of its residents are Black. A large proportion of these Black NO residents are also considered low-income as well. Low income residents generally do not have the luxury of being able to evacuate (i.e., they are less likely to have cars and income to afford to stay at a motel, etc.) and therefore had little choice but to stay behind in NO. That is why a disproportionate number of those in desperate situations in NO are Black.

Second, why has the emergency relief response been so slow? I realize that the devastation is unprecedented and quite catastrophic. But we’re not talking remote villages in southeast Asia here — we’re talking about a major U.S. metropolitan area.

If we connect these two aspects, it inevitably leads to one question — is part of the reason why the relief response has been so slow is because such a disproportionate number of victims in NO are Black? I’m not suggesting that there is some evil conspiracy to let Blacks in NO suffer, but it’s looking more and more like the neglect here may be more than just benign.

Further, some of the media coverage of this tragedy has reinforced the racial overtones of the victims. For example, to their credit, last night the ABC News show PrimeTime Live had a segment that showed two news photos of looters — one was Black and the other was White. In the newspaper in which they were shown, the Black person was described as having just looted a store. In contrast, the White person was described as “having just found some food.” If that’s not racism pure and simple, I don’t know what is.

Yes, there’s been looting, much of it committed by Blacks, but when people are in desperate situations, there’s no help on the way, and they have to worry about such seemingly mundane needs as clean drinking water and food, what would you expect people to do? Just sit around and starve? Of course law and order need to be restored as soon as possible. But that would be made a whole lot easier if the hurricane victims were given the basic supplies they need.

Something tells me that if the majority of those in trouble were middle class Whites, the government response would not be as grossly inept and shockingly slow as it is for these Black victims.

Also, of particular note to Asian Americans, let’s not forget that there is a sizeable Vietnamese American population in Louisiana and Mississippi, many of whom work in the fishing industries that suffered the hardest hits due to the hurricane and its aftermath.

To make a donation to help the victims of this tragedy, please visit the American Red Cross.

Congratulations to the new Little League World Champions: Team USA from Ewa Beach, Hawaii, who won the championship on a dramatic walk-off two-run home run by Michael Memea.

You might recall that Hawaii has the largest proportion of Asian Americans of any U.S. state — around two-thirds of the state’s population has Asian or Pacific Islander ancestry. I’m not sure how many players on the Little League team are Asian American, but judging from the pictures, it looks like it’s in line with the state’s proportions.

Hats off to the champions and let’s hope that as many of them make it all the way to the Major Leagues as possible.