From a Chinese writer to the SF Chronicle

A great piece of writing from a Chinese poster in the SF Chronicle about American hypocrisy towards China:

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When We were labeled the Sick man of Asia, We were called The Peril; Then We are billed to be the next Superpower, you called us The threat. When We closed our doors, You smuggled Opium and forced Open our Market; Then We Embraced Free Trade, You blame us for taking away your jobs. When We were weak and falling apart, You marched in with your troops and occupied your dirty concessions where Chinese and Dogs were not allowed; Then We tried putting the broken pieces back together, Free Tibet you screamed, it was an invasion! (Even Woodrow Wilson Couldnt give back Birth Place of Confucius to Us, But He did buy a ticket for the Famine Relief Ball for us.) So, We tried Communism and self-reliance, You hated us for being Communists; Then We embraced Capitalism and self-enrichment, You hate us for being Capitalists. When We have a Billion People, you said we were destroying the planet; Then We tried to limit our numbers, you said We have no human rights.

When We were Poor, You treated us like dogs (Chinese and Dogs, remember); Then We Loan you money, You blame us for Your debts. When We build our industries, You called us Polluters; When we sell you goods, You blame us for global warming. When We buy oil, You called that Exploitation and Genocide; When You sent troop to fight for oil, You called that Awe and Shock, it was Liberation.

When We were mired in Cultural Revolution, You cackled and said there should be Rules of Law for us. When We uphold law and order against Violence, You called that Brutal Suppression. When Your city got burnt, you call them terrorists; When our City got burnt, you called them the Oppressed. When We were silent, You said you want us to have Free Speech; When We are silent no more, You say we are Brainwashed-Xenophobic. Why do you hate us so much? We asked. No, You Answered, We dont hate You. Well, We dont Hate You either, But do You understand Us? Of course We do, You said, after all We have NYT, CNN, and BBC. I GIVE Up!

3:52 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

I’m such a bleeding heart liberal...

85% Bill Richardson
82% John Edwards
81% Barack Obama
80% Hillary Clinton
76% Chris Dodd
76% Joe Biden
69% Mike Gravel
65% Dennis Kucinich
48% John McCain
47% Rudy Giuliani
41% Mike Huckabee
37% Mitt Romney
32% Tom Tancredo
30% Fred Thompson
19% Ron Paul

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

9:16 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Political Hypocrisy Reaches New Lows
Category: News and Politics

With no message of their own on the Iraq War which has been weighing down their election hopes, Republicans seized upon Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry's message to students that "if you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well.  If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Since they have nothing beyond empty slogans about "Supporting the Troops" while not actually doing anything concrete to benefit our fighting men and women, this opportunistic nitpicking reaches new depths of hypocrisy.  After all, Mr. Kerry's statements reflect an undeniable truth:  Pentagon figures show that enlisted troops have considerably less experience less college experience than the general population:  about 10% compared to 56%.

This low figure does not demonstrate a lack of intelligence in the enlisted military as the Right-Wing insists Mr. Kerry implied; but rather, a lack of educational and occupational opportunities stemming from Republican policies.   To name a few: the vastly under-funded No Children Left Behind Act; vast tax cuts for the wealthy; the assault on affirmative action; and corporate tax loopholes that ship good jobs overseas.    Combined with burgeoning healthcare costs, insurance premiums and gas prices, the window of opportunity has closed for many—thereby making the military an attractive option for those who fall victim to deceitful recruiters.  These are the kids who are being sent to Iraq.

I doubt that Mr. Kerry, a combat veteran himself, meant to disparage those who envisioned military service as a means of improving their lot in life; but rather was directing criticism toward the hypocritical, cowardly politicians whose support of the troops is limited to slapping a yellow ribbon on their SUV.

6:48 PM - 2 Comments - 3 Kudos - Add Comment

Spin The Course
Category: News and Politics

With the specter of the Iraq war threatening to break the Republican stranglehold of Congress in the up-and-coming midterm elections, President Bush and his team have finally jettisoned the "Stay the Course" mantra that has been the ballast of Presidential discourse for the last several years.  The new Iraq Spin:  "A Study In Constant Motion."

Yet, the President cannot escape his image as Head of State-of-Denial because his justification for the War remains a study in constant motion.  Until Mr. Bush stops conjuring up brand new excuses why we should be in Iraq and owns up to the fact that it was a mistake to go there in the first place, his steadfastness will be interpreted by many as either denial or dishonesty. 

The President might say that the "ultimate accountability" rests with him, and that the nation must make sacrifices, but in the end talk is cheap— certainly much less than the value of 2,800 American lives, $340 billion, and the post-9/11 international goodwill squandered in the misadventure to topple a WMD-less dictator who was doing a fine job of suppressing fundamentalist terrorists on his own.

To be accountable, Mr. Bush must make sacrifices of his own.  He must swallow his pride and admit his mistake, and implore the American people to work to rectify the results of his failed policies.  To prove that the goal is worth the sacrifice, he should send his own daughters to Iraq, even if it is within the safety of the Green Zone.  Maybe then he can inspire our entire nation to stay until the job is done.

8:21 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

The Reality of Chinese Medicine?

As a practitioner of Chinese Medicine, I waver between appalled and amused by some of the criticism leveled against our healing art by advocates of mainstream medicine.  While some of it certainly comes from doctors who admittedly know little about Chinese Medicine and therefore understandably look at it with some legitimate skepticism, others disparage it from the standpoint of cultural and scientific superiority; and another handful view Chinese Medicine as a threat to their own checkbooks and deceitfully cloak their attacks under the guise of "protecting the public" or "exposing quacks."  Since so many of the patients I see have already taken the Western medical route and came out worse for the wear, I guess I have a different viewpoint altogether.

In this clip a pompous Dr. Wallace Sampson becomes the latest in a glorious list of skeptics and critics to flamboyantly share his unsolicited opinion.

Unfortunately, Dr. Sampson is not only arrogantly ostentatious; he is also factually wrong.  His limited citations demonstrate either a laughable lack of scholarship or intentional attempts to misdirect, counter-irritate, suggest and demand compliance of his viewers.

To address his views point by point, I will also take a non-scholarly approach, but one which is backed up my mountains of written evidence for anyone who cares to read other viewpoints.

Dr. Sampson says "Advocates of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) say that TCM cannot be evaluated through "Western" judgment because TCM differs in tradition and orientation."

Yet, the greatest advocate is the Peoples Republic of China, which conducts voluminous Western-style research on Chinese Medicine every year.

He adds "TCM developed in a tradition of an authoritarian culture. Independent thinking and argument were discouraged."

TCM did develop in an authoritarian culture: that of the PRC, from 1949.  TCM is a fusion of several approaches, whose roots reach back thousands of years before a centralized Confucian government was established in China, when several schools of philosophical thought co-existed.

Continuing with:  "Diseases were not described. Symptoms and physical characteristics were related only to natural elements and the cosmos. Ideas conformed to those of the emperor and state. TCM contained no concept of physiology, biochemistry, organ function, heredity, or infectious disease."

Organ function as described in "The Yellow Emperor's Classic, (c. 200 B.C..)" while not completely accurate, parallels modern understanding.  Diseases were described.  Some of the earliest texts such as "Treatise of Cold Diseases (c.200 A.D.)" and "Difficult Disease Classic (c.200 A.D.)" mention disease names and symptoms, and then logically describe their pathological processes within the worldview at the timeâalbeit not in a terminology that Dr. Sampson could accept.

The most appalling is his statement that:  "New anthropological findings and China scholars' re-evaluation indicate that acupuncture descended from various informal techniques, not formalized until the 19th and 20th centuries, largely by Europeans."

To suggest that Westerners were responsible for formalization of Chinese Medical theory is not only blatantly celebrating cultural superiority; it is also wrong.  The first texts that describe a logical foundation for understanding the body goes back to the aforementioned "Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic," 2,000 years before Descartes thought and therefore was.

Finally, "TCM is not highly regarded by modern Chinese physicians, as 85% more of medicine there is scientific."

In China, doctors of Western Medicine all learn Chinese Medicine; doctors of Chinese Medicine all learn Western Medicine.  Chinese Medicine and Integrated Medicine departments are parts of all major hospitals.  It is a pillar of the Chinese medical community, where the strengths of both are recognized and mutually rationalized within each others paradigm.

Unfortunately for Dr. Sampson, he is swimming against a strong tide of change.  With insurance companies mucking up Western Medicine and so many people dissatisfied with how it is practiced, he will be seeing more and more Chinese Medicine in the future.  Unless his ilk continue to try to peddle influence with our lawmakers, that is.

1:10 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Divided and Ruled
Current mood: annoyed
Category: News and Politics

The game of domestic Politics boils down to cynical realism pandering to optimistic idealism.  The politician knows that underhanded tactics and backroom deals lead to victory and power; but nonetheless he swathes himself in the grandiose rhetoric of patriotism, loyalty and service in order to appeal to a naïve public.  The saddest part of this equation is that we as a nation buy it

Unfortunately, it seems as if the Republicans play the game much better than the Democrats, and the Left's idealism falls right into their hands.  Our memories are short:  why is Shrub in the Oval Office today?  Because idealists in Florida voted for Ralph Nader in 2000.  The result:  9/11, the Iraq War, massive Budget Deficits, and unrepentant cronyism and corruption. Me, I would have preferred Ralph Nader as President out of the three candidates that year, but realistically, he did not stand a chance; and a vote for idealism ended up as a vote for Bush.

Now, in 2006, the moderate-Left comes to a critical opportunity.  With the Republican Party fragmenting over Iraq Policy and the public's approval of the President waning, this November's midterm elections give us the chance to fight President Bush's destructive agenda-- perhaps even have him impeached and convicted for the grief he has put this Nation through with his dishonesty.

Yet, the Democrats continue to fight among themselves, and have failed to come up with a unified, cohesive policy that addresses ways to stimulate middle-class economic growth, improve domestic security and reinvigorate our sagging foreign relations. 

One symptom of this problem is Connecticuts Senate Race, where a bunch of wanna-be-consultant bloggers propped up anti-war billionaire Ted Lamont in the Democratic primaries.  While I absolutely despise his opponent, incumbent Joe Lieberman, I also recognize that this is a critical election year, and the Democrats can ill-afford to be divided-and-ruled by the far-Right.  From a national strategic point of view, it would be far more effective to commit resources toward competitive races instead of diluting your vote for a seat that should have been secure.

But that is now water under the bridge.  Ted Lamont has won and Connecticut is faced with a three-way race now that Lieberman has decided to run as an independent.  While his supporters may get all warm-and-fuzzy over his lofty "For the sake of our state, our country and my party, I cannot and will not let that result stand," I can only reel in disgust.   

For the sake of our country?  Is he so important that our nation will collapse without him? 

For the sake of our Party?  Dividing the vote will destroy the local Party and strengthen the Republicans. 

Cannot and will not let the result stand?  What, did his father pack the State Supreme Court with his cronies and is his brother the Governor?  Its not like he can pull a Bush2000 move. 

For everyones sake, just step down graciously.

That said, the Connecticut race is only a small piece of a larger puzzle.  The Democrats must come up with a unified stand that will both dig into the Republicans traditional support base and shore up their own.  I would suggest:

1.  Unify against the War in Iraq.  The vast majority of the Public is against it anyway, so the Dems need to get the anti-war Vote to come to the polls with a strategy for ending US involvement there.

2.  Embrace the 9-11 Commission Recommendations:  The Bush administration has yet to start.  By using their blueprint, the Dems can seek to alter the perception that they are weak on security issues.

3.  Protect Social Security:  this cornerstone of American politics has been attacked by Bush time and time again.  It is time to show what he wants and why it is wrong.

4.  Emphasize Bush Administration Corruption and Republican Candidate Voting records.  Im no idealist, if dirty campaigning works, then use it.  Run ads with Bush and Abramoff, develop campaigns that show local Republican candidates closeness to the administration.

5.  Detail an Energy Plan.  Americans are fed up with high oil prices, and Bush is being blamed.  Heck, I dont think it is all of Bushs fault, but I will pin it on him anyway. 

6.  Hedge Bets:  just in case Iraq miraculously unifies out and Osama bin Laden is caught, have a backup plan.

Otherwise, the Democrats will once again prove their political incompetence, and without another election before Bush's constitutionally mandated rule ends, Republican politicians will have no reason not to rally behind him.

10:49 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

How Lose The War on Terror
Current mood: cold
Category: News and Politics

Written by Chinese strategist Sun Tzu 2000 years ago, The Art of War stresses the importance of understanding your enemy.  Yet with his declaration of War on Terror after the attacks of 9/11, President George Bush has repeatedly demonstrated a questionable understanding of the roots of terrorism; and he has therefore implemented a strategy of preemption and aggression that makes the situation worse.  Indeed, terrorist attacks have steadily increased over the past several years, despite an escalation in the cost and effort of the War on Terror.

Perhaps the most glaring evidence of the President's poor comprehension of terrorism comes with his nifty sound byte:  terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength; they are invited by the perception of weakness.  Mr. Bush apparently does not realize that terror is a weapon of the weak, the last resort of the disenfranchised whose only strength is hatred.  He has perhaps forgotten (or slept through) history lessons that should have been learned from the British in Northern Ireland, the Israelis in the occupied territories, or our own military in Vietnam.  And he fails to see the same pattern now:  despite the most awesome display of strength in the history of warfare, our fighting men and women in Iraq are now subject to more frequent and brazen attacks while our very presence in the area inflames anti-American passions throughout the Muslim world.  

Do the terrorists hate freedom as Mr. Bush has repeatedly droned?  If that were the case, Switzerland and all of Scandinavia would be in ruins by now.  Yet, the only democratic countries that have suffered major terrorist attacks from Islamic fundamentalists are those in the Presidents so-called Coalition of the Willing that partook in the invasion of Iraq.

The last several years should have taught us that defeating terrorism requires carrots in addition to sticks.  If we understand that many in the Middle East hate us because of our unequivocal support of Israel, our propping-up of Royal dictatorships and our constant meddling in the region, then we will realize that we must change ourselves so as not to give terrorists a reason to attack us.  We cannot continue our hypocrisy of saying we will promote democracy when the countries we support the most include those that commit the worst atrocities.  We should increase humanitarian aid to countries that play nice and make very public gestures of goodwill to Muslims around the world.

Of course, this does not mean pure appeasement.  We must continue to strengthen our ports of entry by finally implementing the recommendations of the non-partisan 9-11 Commission; we must continue to follow money trails and legally eavesdrop on suspected terrorists to foil plots while they are still in their naissance.  When necessary, we must use our military might to punish governments that harbor terrorists.  But these must always be just one part of the equation.

9:30 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

The Only Trickling Down is the Oil
Current mood: cheerful
Category: News and Politics

Supply-Side Economics, Reaganomics, Trickle-Down Economics are all synonyms for the theology of Republican fiscal policies.  Once dubbed as Voodoo Economics by the Elder President Bush, it follows a simple formula:  you cut taxes, companies have more money to spend on production.  More production means hiring more workers.  More working people with more money means increased consumer spending.  Increased consumer spending spurs the economy.  While the diehard conservatives will celebrate the Reaganomics Era as a period of economic rebound, I will point to skyrocketing budget deficits and warehouses full of unsold Cabbage Patch Dolls.  It is an era that paraphrases the Laissez-Faire policies of the post 1929 Stock Market crash that made the Great Depression so Great.

The problem is, the Republican economic ideology assumes everyone will do the right thing:  that the rich will donate to charities, that corporations will treat their workers fairly, that breakneck military spending will scare other countries into submission instead of spurring arms races.

And now, the Younger President Bush expects Big Oil will do the right thing.  In the face of Congressional calls to tax the oil companies windfall profits to reduce the burden of record gas prices on consumers, the CEO in Chief says "My attitude is that the oil companies need to reinvest their cash flows in such a way that it enhances our energy security."   Once again, Laissez-Faire Economic Dogma rears its ugly head, extolling a blind faith that these companies will do the right thing.  My memories of Exxon fighting to avoid paying damages after it spilled a couple of million barrels of crude oil over the pristine Alaskan coastline tell me otherwise.  It is more likely the oil companies will give their top management pretty bonuses and their record profits will not benefit their average worker or the American consumer.

So Mr. Bush, since I have so little faith in your Corporate Buddies, heres my short-term Demand-Side plan for dealing with our oil crisis:

1.  Instead of just hoping the oil companies reinvest their money, tax the bejesus out of them if they dont.  Its carrots and sticks.

2.  Promote a surtax on SUVs.  Unlike functional Pickup trucks and Minivans, SUVs have very little practical use for the vast majority of their drivers.  At the same time, they block lines-of-site, take up more road space, and drink gas like a CPA drinks coffee at tax time.  A surcharge should make them so expensive that only the wealthiest 1% of Americans could afford them with the annual average $78k tax break they got since Bush came into office.

3.  Reward one-seater small cars.  OK, this is long-term, but still something I wanted to mention.  Since carpooling is so gauche in our country, most commuters really dont need a five-seat SUV to get from home to work.  A one-seater, as envisioned by Toyota and perhaps other companies, would use less gas and takes up less road space.

4.  Federally fund carpool/Hybrid lanes.  If a local government wants to add carpool lanes, give them a helping hand.  The more carpool lanes available, the more you reward people who save gas and reduce noxious emission into our air.  You reduce the number of vehicles in the street and therefore the demand for oil.

5.  Give tax breaks to public transit companies for reducing their charges.  Doing so would make public transportation easier for those who need it and more attractive for people who might otherwise drive.

Yes Mr. Bush, this will hurt the Big Businesses that got you elected, but its better than just hoping they will reinvest in Americas energy security.

11:43 AM - 8 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Born-Again Asian Redeemed Through Fatherhood
Current mood: bouncy
Category: Life

I am a Born-Again Asian.  

Just as Born-Again Christians tend toward religious fanaticism to compensate for a less-than-pious past, I fervently worship at the altar of Asian Pride, atoning for a reckless youth wasted in mainstream pop culture and denial of my Chinese roots.  Having grown up in the then-urban blight of the Confederacy's capital, I remained isolated from the few Asian families with American-born kids that had joined the White exodus to the suburbs.  There were no other Asians in my elementary school; and the very few I knew in middle and high school were all fairly recent immigrants from China or Vietnam who, to my teenage eyes, fit comfortably into the negative stereotypes prevalent in the 1980s.

I was better than them.

I did almost everything imaginable to show that despite my uncanny physical resemblance to the Black-Haired, Brown-Eyed, Yellow-Skinned FOBs, my heart and soul was American.  Whether it was playing football or skateboarding, dating only White and Black girls, or listening to Led Zeppelin one moment and Public Enemy the next, I refused to let the ubiquitous Asian look define me.  When my friends said "we don't really think of you as Oriental," I would consider it a compliment.

In retrospect, I was an idiot.  

My journey toward self-discovery would seem incredibly long-winded and even more incredibly irrelevant to this particular blog-- but basically spans four years of college living among fellow American-born Asians, four years of acculturating to life in Japan and Taiwan, and four years basking in the generational and ethnic diversity of the San Francisco Bay Area.  It is a path where I first shed the baggage of identity denial, then came to appreciate my cultural heritage, and finally replaced my contempt toward the Asian immigrant with a deep sense of respect and admiration.

My past remains important to this story only in that I have since resettled in my hometown with my Japanese-born wife, and that we have a 2-year old daughter and another daughter on the way.  The question now becomes, how do we nurture our children in such a way that they do not succumb to the omnipresent temptations of American pop culture?  In what ways do we foster their pride in their Asian roots?  How do we help them juggle the intricacies of three cultural identities?

On the positive side, the environment has changed.  The Asian population has grown from a handful of families when I was a child to nearly 50,000 individuals now, complete with a wide range of easily-attainable Asian groceries, products and services.  Asian cultures find wider acceptance among the American mainstream as the concept of multiculturalism has evolved from left-wing tree hugging to accepted dogma.

However, while the Asian population has grown here, it continues to be suburbanized, disconnected and somewhat disorganized.  Although Asian cultures may have become more "cool," the Coolie* stands only one international event away from becoming the Yellow Peril, one anecdote away from becoming the Model Minority, and one American Idol slip from becoming the next caricaturized object of mockery.  And when it comes down to it, is this newfound appreciation anything more than exotification, making ethnic culture marketable and palatable for mass consumption without bringing any tangible benefits to individual people?

With these obstacles ahead of us, we must carefully negotiate the parenting path.  Our strategies, mostly passive in that they do not shove Culture down our children's throats, are certainly a work in progress that will undergo tweaking over the years as we seek to adapt to an ever-changing world:

Cultural Attitudes:  Children will learn from the environment the grow up in, and the "Asian" things we do in our daily will not seem strange or foreign to them.  For example, how we set the dinner table, taking our shoes off coming into the house, wearing special slippers in the bathroom, etc.

Ethnic Holidays:  Even though we may not always have the community or the resources to celebrate important ethnic holidays, we can adapt them to the environment.  In Japan, New Year's is the biggest holiday, and this year, we started to follow some of the traditions of cleaning up the house beforehand; and created new traditions of having friends over to eat ozone (New Year's dishes) along with potluck.  For Chinese New Year, we gave our daughter a Red Envelope and had dinner with the local Chinese community.

Language: one of my biggest regrets is not learning Chinese until I was 19.  I want my children to speak Chinese, Japanese, and English--- perfectly.  But we are starting with Japanese, since my wife speaks it flawlessly.

Television:  we installed a satellite dish so that we could pick up Chinese and Japanese programming.  These programs obviously portray Asians as real people instead of pre-packaged stereotypes.  Of course, seeing MacGyver speaking Mandarin is just a little whack.

Friend's Circles:  although our neighborhood is predominantly White and one of our Playgroups is neighborhood kids, we also have established two other playgroups:  one with Japanese moms (it seems that every local Japanese woman of child-bearing age had a baby in the last two years); and Chinese moms.  If our kids have friends who look like them, hopefully, they will view other Asians as individuals and not as stereotypes. Some of these kids are biracial, but we figure that perhaps we can be a good Asian influence on them, too :P

Annual trips to Japan:  I did not go to Asia until I was 19; my daughter has already visited Japan twice... both before her second birthday.  Not only does she benefit from love showered on her by doting grandparents, but she will also have experience living in Asia and hopefully see herself as something of a Japanese person.  We hope she will spend the entire summer there by the time she is school age.

Most importantly, serve as an example:  children learn from watching their parents work, play and interact.  In the home, we try not to establish clear gender roles when practical.  I will cook at least once a week, wash dishes the majority of the time, etc in hopes that our kids will not buy into the idea of the "chauvinistic father."  However, cleaning has never been my strong suit :P  In the community, we take an active role in volunteering for ethnic activities.  My wife helps organize Japanese mothers, and I work in organizations that unify the Chinese and Asian communities.  We hope that if our children see that we value people of our own ethnic groups, they will too.

It took me 20 years and a lot of self-exploration to "become" Asian; I hope the task comes very naturally to my own kids, that they will not have to endure the same type of self-hatred that I imposed on myself.  For this to happen, we will be taking an active role in not only providing a loving, nurturing environmentbut also an atmosphere where they have no need to feel ashamed of who they are.

*shamelessly stolen from Vijay Prasaad

1:42 AM - 16 Comments - 12 Kudos - Add Comment

My 34th Birthday Epiphany
Current mood: devious
Category: Web, HTML, Tech

It hit me the night before my birthday, while instant messaging with a 26-year old friend:  despite the mere 8-year age difference between us, she and I had come of age at dramatically different times in human history.  In the decade that passed between my first e-mail account as a Junior at UVa and the year that she graduated from cross-state rival (read: losers) Tech, the Information Age began.  Just as people who had lived before the automobile, the television, commercial airlines, the Vietnam War, clean air, or other watershed inventions and events, I had born witness to a significant change in the way humans perceived themselves and how they interacted with each other.

The internet made it all possible.  Although over a quarter-century old, it had been limited mostly to research facilities, universities, military installations and Al Gore’s residence.  Yet, several simultaneous events brought it to ubiquity over a few short years.  Whereas most computers had once been too expensive for most individuals, a drop in microchip prices suddenly made the PC as regular a home fixture as the fondue maker.  And while DOS and UNIX systems remained too complex for most people’s patience, Windows made the computer far-less intimidating for the unwashed masses.  These factors, combined with visual browsers and AOL’s free introduction to dial-up, led to more-and-more homes with internet access.  Free pornography (AOL = Adult Online) probably had an influence as well.  While the ratio of toilets to computers was 23:1 in 1994, today it is closer to 2:1, and as high as 1:2 in Asian-American households.

To demonstrate the difference that 10 years makes:  when I got my first e-mail account, I hardly had anyone to write to (read:  one person – my older brother who is more of a tech geek than I).  To use it, I had to know the rudiments of UNIX, and I had to be patient enough to cope with text-based browsing.  Now, even elementary school children have e-mail, and the point-and-click convenience of the mouse makes using computers and navigating the world-wide web incredibly easy -- even my younger brother, who took six years to graduate from VCU with a less than 4.0 GPA can use it.

And the wide reach of the internet has changed how we interact with one another.  At one time, I naively believed that e-mail would help me keep in contact with friends:  international phone calls used to cost $1 per minute thereby preventing the joy of instant interaction; and I was too lazy to write letters, let alone walk a block to the post office to mail them, so I had fallen out of touch with so many people.  I figured that the ease and simplicity of e-mail would rectify that.  And maybe for the first twenty minutes of my e-mail experience, it did.  After the luster of the new toy faded, I came to the stark reality that my life was just not interesting enough to share with my far-flung friends anyway.   And therefore, E-mail has become a ritual not just for me, but for many people, with 75% of the messages taking up no more than 2 lines; another 20% (comprising the majority of e-correspondence among people under 20) is made up of smileys.  And the last 5% is for those folks who send their entire life stories in messages that their far-flung friends don’t bother to read anyway.  

The deeper impact of e-interaction may lie in the brevity of human relations.  The ease and inexpensiveness of instant communication across the globe has made us impatient, in need of immediate gratification.  More disturbingly, a brand new vocabulary of tech and smiley’s, delivered with an impersonal conciseness via Instant or Text Messenging, may find its way out of cyberspace and into our verbal and literary vernacular as the next evolution of the English language.  I can only imagine that Shakespeare’s @--‘-,-- by any other name, Beethoven’s :) Interlude, Dante’s >:), and other literary masterpieces may one day come to move both u and me, bringing :~( too our eyes.  I can only imagine what role the Internet will play in our evolution. (or Intelligent Design, if you like that better).

Yes, there was once a simpler time, long before the internet, long before the Information Age took off:  your parents or grandparents might have delivered this diatribe when you complained about how tough life was:

“When I was your age, we had to walk to school, in the snow, two feet deep.  Uphill!  Both ways!  Thermal materials?  We didn’t have that, we had to layer! We had to watch TV in black and white!  Cordless phones?  We were attached to the wall by a wire!   So don’t come complaining to me about how hard YOUR life is!”

But I suppose that one of these days, I will be telling my daughter:

I can only imagine what’s she’ll be telling her kids...

8:45 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment