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Asian American Reflections on Martin Luther King Day

Like many others, my Asian American story begins in war. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, my father was a young man studying in Seoul, and my mother a 13-year-old girl. They both largely insist that they experienced no suffering. Yet a different truth emerges from my mother’s references to using helmets of dead soldiers that littered the ground as cooking vessels, or my father’s stories of being arrested numerous times for his leftist political activity.

It was only in my 30s, when I began interviewing my parents, that I was able to begin piecing together their stories, … Read more “Asian American Reflections on Martin Luther King Day”

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NYT Sunday Edition: “All the Propaganda That’s Fit to Print”

I bought The New York Times on Sunday for the first time in years this weekend. When I was growing up, we had a subscription and my father would insist that I and my siblings read the Week In Review, which, of course we didn’t, but the few times I tried I had no idea what any of it meant. I lugged the stack to a diner for a little self-date with some waffles and coffee. These were 4 of 5 of the front page headlines, reading left to right, above the fold to below the fold:

Wall St. Mothers, … Read more “NYT Sunday Edition: “All the Propaganda That’s Fit to Print””

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Exporting the American Dream: Thoughts on “Free” Trade Agreements

Education. More sophisticated work. Higher pay. This is the development formula Mexico has been seeking for decades….Here, in a mostly poor state long known as one of the country’s main sources of illegal immigrants to the United States, a new Mexico has begun to emerge. Dozens of foreign companies are investing, filling in new industrial parks along the highways. Middle-class housing is popping up in former watermelon fields…signaling a growing confidence in Mexico’s economic future and what many see as the imported meritocracy of international business. In a country where connections and corruption are still common tools of enrichment, many … Read more “Exporting the American Dream: Thoughts on “Free” Trade Agreements”