yellowmancan's Xanga

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 15:43:43 GMT

Not your typical "shooting on school campus" entry

Anyone who hasn’t lived under a rock the past few days is aware of the shooting rampage at VA Tech recently. Even if you don’t read the news, you know about it, because it’s plastered all over your friends’ xangas, blogs, and facebook notes, each entry dripping with honest sentiments of shock and horror.

Which leads me to provoke the question: are we really that naïve? First, let me say that I am not trying to trivialize what happened, though I may end up doing exactly that. Any way you look at it, the event was a tragedy.

I’m interested in the psychology of why people, myself included, find it so easy to unite under such circumstances as “shooting at Columbine” or “terrorist attacks subway station in NYC”—isolated incidents which have a direct effect on relatively few people—while turning a blind eye to daily, recurring atrocities that destroy hundreds or thousands of lives every day. Consider the following statistics:

Malaria kills 1-3 million people each year, making the most conservative casualty count roughly 3,000 people per day.

2.8 million people died of starvation in North Korea’s three-year famine. This was 1998. Today it’s arguably hardly any better.

Approximately 110 people in the U.S. commit suicide every day. Some people will excuse this by saying that it’s self-inflicted, when the truth is that there’s always something someone could have done to help.

In the most developed country in the world, the United States, there are 744,000 chronically homeless people (those with repeated episodes or who have been homeless for long periods), many of which ultimately die of starvation, diseases wrought by living in unsanitary conditions, or of sheer cold. Again, easily preventable should we provide them with a fraction of our disposable income.

And on and on and on it goes…

This begs two questions. First, why are some of us suddenly afraid of going to school because of a remote shooting in Virginia when statistically, you have a better chance of committing suicide or of asphyxiation by choking? Second, why does it so rattle us when news like this hits our radar? I’m talking about news that we can’t prevent without taking irrational measures, while we ignore the preventable atrocities that occur on a much larger scale around the world. Homicides happen every day, to people in a generally much closer vicinity to you than the students in VA. Are 32 homicides in one campus worse than 32 homicides distributed around the world? Is it about vicinity? Or about numbers?

Or maybe it’s just shocking to some of you that people can be so cruel. How can someone volunteer to discharge bullets and shrapnel into a live human being as a carpenter would fire a nail into furniture? For those of you who resonate with this, I must ask if you’ve ever read the newspaper (not counting the comics or sports sections). 50% of newspaper articles are about people dying. The front page is about the highly politicized ones (see top headline of the drudge report: “Campus Killer is native of S. Korea”… like that really has to do with anything), while the rest is about some homeless black guy in Idaho getting lynched. I’m not trying to be crude, but this is reality.

Moreover, how can someone be surprised that these happen when it’s in all of our natures to do the same thing under the right contexts? I’d rather not speak for anyone but myself, but I dare to say that I’m not the only one. I don’t think about taking a gun to anyone’s head, but I grew up in a loving family with nice dogs and have everything I could pretty much ever want.

When you or I examine our own human nature, can we honestly say that mankind is truly inherently good? Is the solution to life's problems really more of me? I hope not.

I hope I don’t come off as cynical or jaded. At least that’s not all I hope to come across as. After all, if my perception of the world ultimately fits reality, hence my not being surprised at such tragedies happening, it’s a pretty good start.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 16:09:51 GMT

i made a quiche!

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 19:45:25 GMT

Martin Luther King Jr's Letter from Birmingham Jail was a response to eight clergymen who published an article denouncing King's methods and motives. I have rarely if ever come across a work so insightful and prophetic, page after page and word after word. In this excerpt, he deals with the topic of the Church. I encourage you all to read the letter in its entirity here .

I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.

When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church. I felt that the ministers, priests, and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows.

I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: "Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother." In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: "Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern." And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely otherworldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.

Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson, and the great-grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.

There was a time when the church was very powerful -- in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators." But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey Gad rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests.

Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arch defender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent -- and often even vocal -- sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.

Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ekklesia and the hope of the world.

This is all so true. 43 years later, has anything changed? Have we progressed? Have we regressed? Do we as a church simply submit to the status quo, or do we push it towards godliness? Have we confused culture for what is truly Christianity? Why do you think the church is more often than not seen as inauthentic, irrelevant, and ineffective?

Monday, September 11, 2006

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 04:28:14 GMT

when i watched this, i nearly wept. where are my tear ducts?! please watch. it is so beautiful. scroll to the 16:40 mark, where she asks goldie hawn to pick five chords from which she improvises off of. unbelievable.

14 year old jennifer lin on the piano

Friday, August 25, 2006

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 17:37:22 GMT

it's not that i don't want the world to know. i'd just rather them not find out through facebook!

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 18:20:32 GMT

i'm on my way to the bus stop and the strangest thing happens to me.

as i'm walking, i look up, and about 100 ft away from me, a 60-year old man is blowing me kisses. well, i wasn't totally sure that's what he was doing. after all, he was 100 ft away and i didn't want to make eye contact so i had quickly glanced away (but in the corner of my eye i could tell he's still doing whatever he's doing).

i'm 30 ft away from him now. he's definitely still blowing me kisses. he's probably blown me a hundred kisses by now. he is on my trajectory to the bus and i make no effort to avoid him (i could always tear his limbs off, thus rendering him harmless).

as i pass him, he gives me the creepiest look and in a throaty voice says "hi there... heeeey you". meanwhile he's walking backwards back into his house, as if beckoning me in. i could tell he was disappointed that i didn't follow him.

why do i always seem to attract the weirdos??

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 18:56:10 GMT

Life's Simple Pleasures

Instructions: Name 10 of life's simple pleasures that you like the most, and then pick 10 people to do the same. Try to be original and creative; try not to use something that someone already used.

Tagged by: Cheritina & Slee

Honey and Peppermint Tea. It’s my new (caffeine-free!) addiction at work.
Falling asleep with a certain beautiful redhead nestled gently under my arm. In the morning she wakes me with a flurry of licks and dribbles across my face.
Giving myself a hemorrhoid laughing over something that is funny—inexplicably—to me and me alone. Well, everything but the hemorrhoid part.
Filtered cigarettes. Ha!! Just kidding. Well there’s one pleasure wasted…
Lack of pretense. Whether in people or food or writing, a sense of raw honesty, unencumbered by ego, and graced with vulnerability.
Taking your time to eat a meal.
Finding out that two of your friends are getting hitched. (Unless he’s a jerk or she’s a moron… but they wouldn’t be my friends then would they?)
not punctuating my emails
Casually telling really sinister jokes and watching my friends recoil in shock and horror.
Interacting with a critical mind—with someone who takes the time (and has taken the time) to challenge why they do the things they do, and why they believe what they believe in. People like this have a discerning eye for subtleties—they can appreciate a fine cheese despite never having had cheese before, simply because quality (and truth) speaks for itself, and you will hear its voice if you can pick it out from the noise. Sadly, this is a dying breed.

I poke: skong, nathan chu, guoface, poqsaq, jadegenie, fantaBOlous, FannersTanners, myabba, tim the greek, najola

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 14:44:20 GMT

Taken from the Wall Street Journal

Outbreak of Rabies Mars the Comeback of Canines in China

Killing of 50,000 Rural Dogs
Angers Urban Pet Lovers;
A Puppy as Second Child

By NICHOLAS ZAMISKA
August 8, 2006; Page A1

MOUDING, China -- Late last month, an 11-year-old boy walked his little black puppy to its execution. The thought of its impending death made him cry. By giving up his pet, the boy was ensuring that it would be hanged -- a more humane fate than having it snatched away and beaten to death in the street, as was happening to other dogs.

Little Black was one of 50,000 dogs slaughtered last month in Mouding, a county in southwestern Yunnan province. Authorities ordered the killings in response to a rabies outbreak that killed several people and sickened 360. Virtually every dog in Mouding has been hanged, beaten to death or otherwise killed.

Officials from Jining city in central Shandong province say they plan to kill all dogs within about three miles of each village where rabies has been detected, the official Xinhua news agency said Friday, estimating that 500,000 dogs could be at risk.

more here (subscribe to read)

Monday, July 24, 2006

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:27:33 GMT

Last night I was at a wedding dinner. As we all know, it is inevitable that at these sorts of occasions, someone will be brandishing their sparkling new baby. It is as if there were some invisible mandate from above, a connubial law and matrimonial prerequisite, that engaged or recently married persons are expected to surround themselves with as many babies as possible. This is, I think, their way of bracing and hyping themselves up for the next step beyond marriage – that of producing heaps and heaps of wonderful, billowy soft babies.

Now, this baby really was beautiful. I can’t say that for all babies. It had intelligent, glimmering eyes, and appealing bulges and rolls of pinchable baby fat tucked under its fair white skin. We all smile at it, and it smiles back.

By now, it is that time of the evening for the baby to make its rounds. In other words, it is that time when the baby is passed around the circle, one by one, for each adult to individually admire. I am busy scratching the household puppy on my lap. But before I know it, it is my turn to play with the baby, and it is placed gently to my right.

DISCLAIMER: I have never held a baby before! However I have held many small dogs.

So what do I do? I reach down at start petting it. I give it a little scratch behind the ears. It is only when I look up and see the others gawking at me do I realize that this is not a puppy! It is a human baby! Keyword: HUMAN! And just because it’s small doesn’t mean you should pet it. Feed the baby – don’t pet it.

I nervously excuse myself and pretend to get something to drink.

And that, my friends, is that.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Sat, 11 Feb 2006 07:49:22 GMT

last week, my lower gastro-intestinal unit was so bloated that i thought i had a hernia. i even "coughed" to self-examine myself and nearly had my roommate rush me to the ER (hernia seems to runs in my family, even though it is not a genetically-related affliction).

then i farted, and all was well again.