chngthengteng's Xanga

Roq off crew

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:02:57 GMT

Roq off crew

American Casino, WATCH IT

My current addiction

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:19:38 GMT

228 Fast

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:05:51 GMT

228 is a significant date in Taiwan's history. To commemorate this time in Taiwan's historical consciousness, many people choose to fast in remembrance of the cruelty of those times in Taiwan's past. For 24 hours, drinking only water, let us meditate and educate people around us so that we may find better ways to take action in this world. As we feel our hunger, let us be reminded to share the stories of Taiwan's past on that day.

http://www.taiwandc.org/228-intr.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/228_incident

http://www.uta.edu/accounting/faculty/tsay/feb28hd.htm

Fighting the good fight - part deux

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:40:00 GMT

The work of a community organizer is never done. As it turned out, when our neighborhood association defeated the zoning appeal of the local business in his attempt to open a nightclub in our neighborhood, he completely disregarded the result. He continued to run his nightclub much to the chagrin of the residents and even started a defamation law suit against our neighbor accusing her of making racist comments. For a while, my wife and I were thinking of the grin and bear it strategy though when fights broke out in front of the club, or traffic would be terribly backed up, we would sometimes call 911. If we ever saw someone flash a gun, we would immediately call of course from the shadows of our windows.

Then we discovered of another hearing that happened. I again went to city hall to bear witness as a neighbor to testify and a black neighbor also went so that as Asian and Black neighbors, we can make a unified appeal that his business is just keeping us up at night. The Baltimore Sun, our local newspaper went ahead and wrote an article of what happened. It just goes to show that persistence still matters. Another small victory, but if we can keep them up, maybe we can eventually make our neighborhood a more livable, peaceful one and raise our children in the city!

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.liquor30jan30,0,4555362.story

City liquor board fines TD Lounge owner $3,100
Inspector had been manhandled there during an investigation last year
By Brent Jones | brent.jones@baltsun.com
January 30, 2009

The city liquor board fined the owner of TD Lounge - formerly Timothy Dean Bistro - $3,100 yesterday after one of the board's inspectors was manhandled by restaurant security during an investigation last year.

Owner Timothy Dean acknowledged during the hearing that his security guards should not have physically kept the inspector from entering his business, in the 1700 block of Eastern Ave., during an early-morning private party Nov. 15. But a member of Dean's staff testified that the inspector did not immediately identify himself and appeared to be trying to avoid paying a $20 cover fee.

The inspector testified that he was escorted out of the front of the restaurant by three security guards, and he was not allowed to begin his investigation until Dean intervened.

"I think the fine is stiff for a first-time offender," Dean said.

Stephan Fogleman, the liquor board chairman, said accusations of threats or abuse against inspectors are taken seriously, and that "noncooperation cases are particularly troubling."

Liquor board commissioners also found the restaurant guilty of operating as a de facto dance club, which violates its zoning designation.

Dean turned the restaurant into a lounge in June, saying at the time that he was losing money as a high-end bistro because of the economy. The lounge was planned to be a jazz club that would stay open late, but a dispute with a neighborhood group occurred, and Dean was not granted the proper entertainment licensing on appeal.

The lounge serves moderately priced food until 1 a.m., and Dean charges a late-night cover on the weekends.

After liquor board investigators first visited Nov. 9 and warned Dean that a live disc jockey and dancing were in violation of his license, Dean said he reconfigured the second floor to make sure there was no room for his patrons to dance. Investigators returned the next weekend for a follow-up inspection when the incident occurred.

Dean said after the hearing that he is being unfairly targeted by city agencies and elected officials, in part, because he is a minority owner in a mostly white district.

City Councilman James B. Kraft said Dean is overstepping the limits of his license, and asked the restaurant owner to cancel an advertised event scheduled tomorrow night at the lounge. Kraft said he considers the event entertainment and would like Dean to show a "good-faith effort" to work with the community by canceling. Dean said he is going through with his plans.

Kraft said he has heard from many neighbors who have criticized the late-night noise and clublike lines outside the restaurant Fridays and Saturdays. He added that more would complain, but they fear Dean, who has a pending defamation lawsuit against a neighbor.

Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:45:40 GMT

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/black_man_given_nations

WASHINGTON—African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country Tuesday when he was elected president of the United States of America. In his new high-stress, low-reward position, Obama will be charged with such tasks as completely overhauling the nation's broken-down economy, repairing the crumbling infrastructure, and generally having to please more than 300 million Americans and cater to their every whim on a daily basis. As part of his duties, the black man will have to spend four to eight years cleaning up the messes other people left behind. The job comes with such intense scrutiny and so certain a guarantee of failure that only one other person even bothered applying for it. Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, "It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break."

Article: My wife made me canvass for Obama; here's what I learned

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:16:22 GMT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20081103/cm_csm/ycurley;_ylt=AlBI1Bci5DwWBvrflbL8_9YEtbAF

My wife made me canvass for Obama; here's what I learned

By Jonathan Curley – Mon Nov 3, 3:00 am ET

Charlotte, N.C. – There has been a lot of speculation that Barack Obama might win the election due to his better "ground game" and superior campaign organization.

I had the chance to view that organization up close this month when I canvassed for him. I'm not sure I learned much about his chances, but I learned a lot about myself and about this election.

Let me make it clear: I'm pretty conservative. I grew up in the suburbs. I voted for George H.W. Bush twice, and his son once. I was disappointed when Bill Clinton won, and disappointed he couldn't run again.

I encouraged my son to join the military. I was proud of him in Afghanistan, and happy when he came home, and angry when he was recalled because of the invasion of Iraq. I'm white, 55, I live in the South and I'm definitely going to get a bigger tax bill if Obama wins.

I am the dreaded swing voter.

So you can imagine my surprise when my wife suggested we spend a Saturday morning canvassing for Obama. I have never canvassed for any candidate. But I did, of course, what most middle-aged married men do: what I was told.

At the Obama headquarters, we stood in a group to receive our instructions. I wasn't the oldest, but close, and the youngest was maybe in high school. I watched a campaign organizer match up a young black man who looked to be college age with a white guy about my age to canvas together. It should not have been a big thing, but the beauty of the image did not escape me.

Instead of walking the tree-lined streets near our home, my wife and I were instructed to canvass a housing project. A middle-aged white couple with clipboards could not look more out of place in this predominantly black neighborhood.

We knocked on doors and voices from behind carefully locked doors shouted, "Who is it?"

"We're from the Obama campaign," we'd answer. And just like that doors opened and folks with wide smiles came out on the porch to talk.

Grandmothers kept one hand on their grandchildren and made sure they had all the information they needed for their son or daughter to vote for the first time.

Young people came to the door rubbing sleep from their eyes to find out where they could vote early, to make sure their vote got counted.

We knocked on every door we could find and checked off every name on our list. We did our job, but Obama may not have been the one who got the most out of the day's work.

I learned in just those three hours that this election is not about what we think of as the "big things."

It's not about taxes. I'm pretty sure mine are going to go up no matter who is elected.

It's not about foreign policy. I think we'll figure out a way to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan no matter which party controls the White House, mostly because the people who live there don't want us there anymore.

I don't see either of the candidates as having all the answers.

I've learned that this election is about the heart of America. It's about the young people who are losing hope and the old people who have been forgotten. It's about those who have worked all their lives and never fully realized the promise of America, but see that promise for their grandchildren in Barack Obama. The poor see a chance, when they often have few. I saw hope in the eyes and faces in those doorways.

My wife and I went out last weekend to knock on more doors. But this time, not because it was her idea. I don't know what it's going to do for the Obama campaign, but it's doing a lot for me.

Jonathan Curley is a banker. He voted for George H.W. Bush twice and George W. Bush once.

Fighting the good fight

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:02:24 GMT

VERSUS

Often times when people think of community organizing or improving our neighborhoods, people think of leading a march or making an inspiring speech to demonstrators cheering for change. Yet when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of incremental change in our society, it often involves tedious meetings with zoning boards and other various boards wrestling over legal interpretations on implementations of policy.

Yesterday was such a struggle. Across our street, there was a man running an upscale restaurant quite successfully for several years. His business was an asset to our neighborhood and brought in positive income to not only himself but uplifted the neighborhood. Due to the recent economic downturn and the opening of Inner Harbor East, this past year, he changed his business model from a restaurant to a lounge. This lounge soon became synonymous with dance club. He even had P-Diddy come and frequent his club leaving our furniture shaking from the loud music. July 4th weekend when we were trying to leave for our family vacation to Cincinnati, cars would be double parked going both directions waiting for valet parking to catch up. Our street is the main corridor from downtown to the east side entrance to the highway so traffic is always a challenge so to double park and block traffic is extremely inconsiderate. On top of that, he was violating zoning codes by even having live entertainment at his establishment. Being a zoning code violation, he then tried to rezone his establishment to allow for live entertainment in his restaurant.

Our whole neighborhood was disturbed by this and many of us attended the Baltimore Zoning Board meeting to challenge a rezoning of his property to be a live entertainment zone. It was interesting how the dynamics played out. He sold himself as an honest businessman trying to survive in a difficult economy so he had to open a night club to make money to pay for his daughter's college education. Our argument was simply that he was breaking zoning laws and when he did run the night club, he created chaos in the neighborhood and lost the trust of the local community. With his nightclub attracting primarily black patrons and the surrounding neighborhood being overwhelmingly white and latino, he also tried to play the race card. Thus with me being the only Asian there, I was well aware of the tokenism of my situation. Our neighborhood association had a lawyer working pro-bono and our elected city council member fighting for us while the restaurant hired a high powered lawyer with connections to the Mayor and President of City council working for him.

My role as the community organizer with few connections to power was the good old hit the pavement canvasser collecting signatures with a clip board. The evening before the hearing, Val put together the petition, photos of the double parking incident and talking points. With these materials, I walked the neighborhood pushing the double stroller with my two younger children collecting signatures from neighbors to oppose the live entertainment license. All together we were able to amass about 50+ signatures of residents against the live entertainment license. When submitted, immediate objections from the restaurant's lawyer took place in vain. Thus we presented our argument with the legal interpretation of the zoning law, community support and politically elected representation.

Well, the result of the outcome was that we defeated his live entertainment license thus gaining another small victory in our quest to raise a family in the heart of downtown Baltimore.

Si se puede!

power dynamics

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:59:16 GMT

When is service not a healthy act? In a few weeks, my eldest son's elementary school will provide a service opportunity to donate food and give away food to needy families in the neighborhood. At first Val was thinking that this would be a good opportunity to teach our children the value of service and volunteerism. Yet on second thought, we realized that many of the families that will be receiving this food will be the families of his classmates. How would the power dynamics be looked at? Is this concept of service the right way to teach my children service? How might that affect his interaction with those less fortunate students? Right now, none of the kids know each other's socio-economic class. Eventually, the kids will figure out who has privilege and who doesn't. How might this power dynamic affect their view of each other?

When are our efforts service and when is it charity? Can it be harmful?

Should we still have our kids get involved with this event?

notice one hand is higher than another

If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” - Aboriginal Activists

Free at last! Free at last!!!

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:53:07 GMT

Sami Al-Arian Released After 5.5 Years in Prison

After more than five-and-a-half years behind bars, Palestinian professor and activist, Sami Al-Arian, has been released from prison. Immigration authorities released him on bail on Tuesday after they failed to explain his continued detention pending a trial for refusing to testify before a grand jury about a cluster of Muslim organizations in northern Virginia. But while he is out of prison, Sami Al-Arian is not free. He must remain under house detention at his daughter Laila’s residence in Virginia, pending trial.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/3/sami_al_arian_released_after_five

My previous links to his story:

He was acquitted of all charges, yet they still kept him in prison...
http://weblog.xanga.com/chngthengteng/402031543/item.html

A poem he wrote...
http://weblog.xanga.com/chngthengteng/114544853/item.html

how important is elementary education?

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:30:07 GMT

My eldest son started kindergarten this week. Before this week, we had him enrolled in a private, expensive Montessori school which taught him how to read, write and basic addition and subtraction. Following the national standard, that places him at the first or second grade level in academics.

By sending him to our local neighborhood zone school in Baltimore city, we are now introducing him to classmates without such opportunities and some from broken families. Looking at online statistics, 90% of the families at this school fall below the poverty line. My wife, from Singapore is very stressed by this possibility. Being a little "gia su" or "keeping up with the joneses" she is very worried that he will suffer from such surroundings.

Going to the school we see that his co-students are mostly the children of documented and undocumented latino families, a few middle class kids, and a few obviously neglected children from very downtrodden situations.

This choice was a difficult choice for my wife and I to make. We tried to get in to the better charter schools which are also public schools, but to get in, you either had to be a teacher at the school, or get a spot through the lottery. Unfortunately or fortunately, we didn't get in this year. We will of course try again next year, but for now we will make do with the school he is in now.

My wife is now going to the school every day trying to get involved and active in uplifting the school's standards. What she observes this week has been a very challenging situation which seems to fit in to many suburban stereotypes of urban decay schools. Yet, of course we will make lemonade out of lemons and exert as much as possible to uplift this school.

When I look back at my education, I don't recall learning any difficult academic concepts until 6th grade onwards.

How important is it to be "gia su" or to go to an elite education for elementary school?

comments?