Lao new year coverage

the san fran weekly has a review of the new year festivities sponsored by cls:

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2009/08/center_for_lao_studies_first_a.php

asians raging about a seattle weekly article

http://www.seattleweekly.com/2009-08-05/news/ragin-asians/1

above is a link to an article entitled, "seattle's raging asians," found in the seattle weekly, one of seattle's alternative newspapers. the writer, erika hobart, pens a heartless, unsympathetic and even down-right mean-spirited depiction of asian night life here in the pacific northwest. to her credit, she doesn't miss a beat in describing the manic pointlessness of it all, but i'm guessing that her "subjects" had no idea that she'd depict them in such a fashion. i heard that she is half-asian and half-white and so you'd expect she'd have more insight into the circumstances of these 20-somethings; but i doubt she is southeast asian and maybe that's part of the problem. hobart only gives a cursory explanation (and replete with stereotypes about strict parental expectations) to this phenomenon that is found in seattle, and she also ignores the fact that this behavior can be found in all ethnic minority groups and in the majority white population as well.

her quotation from a viet promoter that asians travel around in schools "like neon tetra fish" only exposes the ignorance of the whole article: for the most part, what ethnic group doesn't travel around in packs??? whites hang with whites, asians with asians, blacks with blacks. thus when examined from a broader perspective, the article is as pointlessness as these kids' drinking. hobart uses some smart, clever metaphors - but the article ends up too full-of-itself; rather than saying anything important or revealing about asians and their nightlife, the author just drones on with her condemnatory recitation of these kids' night out. the whole thing seems like one big ego-stroke for the writer: "look at these pathetic people pissing in parking lots and getting blindingly drunk; i am SO glad i am not one of them." yeah, i must say, ms. hobart is pretty durn mean.

but who am i to comment on this? (haha!) i am just a white guy. but read the comment section - some people probably have smarter things to say about this subject than i do.

but considering how many people are undoubtedly upset by her article, ms. hobart should probably park her car in the garage to avoid getting her tires slashed... at least for the time being - until most of the seattle weeklys containing her forgettable article are either recycled or end up in the landfill.

Laos in time

an article from time magazine about the wonders of vang vieng - the small riverside town that (depending on what time of year you go) has more europeans wandering its streets than Lao people. i don't have statistics on that - just an observation. see link below:


http://www.time.com/time/travel/article/0,31542,1913389,00.html?cnn=yes

chinese comments

due to the numerous comments in chinese that i have received regarding my most interesting post, "baton rouge is thuggin' it," i am finally adding word verification to my blog. (after 3 + years of easy commenting, the good ol' days are over.) here is an example of one of the 10 comments i received:

anonymous said...
michael jackson(麥可傑克森)你永遠是我的最愛

michael jackson,麥可傑克森

瑜珈,看護,旅遊

保健,蛋糕,服飾

網路,資訊,花園

法拍屋,隔熱紙

達人,精品,整形

科技,天空,飛翔

蝸牛,不孕,汽車

i don't read, speak, or understand chinese, but with the name "michael jackson" stuck up in there, i kinda think that this comment has nothing to do with "baton rouge is thuggin' it" at all.