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Asian population in the U.S

thehungryrunnergirl1 Comment

I see a lot of Asian people (well, including me) in the United States, especially in California. I wondered what percentage of the U.S. population is made up by Asian-Americans.

An Asian-American is a person who has an origin from an Asian country (either combination with additional races, or alone) ; Cambodia, China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Phillipines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India.

According to the U.S census Bureau, they occupy 5.6% of the U.S population in 2010 which is 17.3 million people (3.8 million of Chinese, 3.2 million of Fillipinos, 2.8 million of Asian Indians, 1.7 million of Vietnamese, 1.6 million of Koreans, and 1.3 million of Japanese).

Now, if you take a look at by state…

Even though this picture is from 2000, according to the U.S census Bureau, California still has the highest population of Asians than any other state, which is approximately 5.6 million people.

BECAUSE, CALIFORNIA ROCKS.

Anyway, there are many Asian people in America.

Typhoon 12

thehungryrunnergirlLeave a comment

According to Yahoo Japan, typhoon 12 hit Japan on the 2nd of September and hasn’t moved away yet. It has been a month…

The death toll from the typhoon reached seventy-four. Moreover, in the Nara-Prefecture, 20 people are missing, a landslide occurred at 17 places, and 623 people are now living in evacuation shelters.

That’s it. That huge whirlpool is covering Japan.

The government official says it would be very hard to recover from this disaster.

Japan has been dealing with misfortunes this year. Since the country is an island, disaster never ceases. Obviously, there’s nothing to do but to prepare whatever strikes next.

2:46PM March 11th, 2011

thehungryrunnergirlLeave a comment

In Japan, earthquakes happen at least once a week. There’s a system that predicts earthquakes five seconds beforehand to help you prepare.

On March 11, I was working out in a gym. Suddenly, the power went out and the ground started to shake. I thought to myself, “Well okay, again. No big deal.” But the shake didn’t end, and I soon realized that this earthquake was huge. Personal trainers told me to evacuate. I couldn’t walk. I felt as if my legs lost control. Fortunately, the buildings in Japan were built strong for earthquakes so we were safe, but phones had no service and I couldn’t communicate with my family. It was chaos.

When I got back home after walking for an hour, I turned on the TV. I was shocked out of my wits. Tohoku was destroyed by a tsunami. I saw people on the top of a hospital waving and asking for help. It was absolutely unbelievable. Cars, houses were all gulped by the tsunami.

Why? Why did this happen? Why Japan?

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A week later, the death toll went up to 6,900 people. I was just shocked. What if I lived there? What if my families and friends were there…?

But in the midst of this heartbreak, there was a one thing that made my happy. I discovered the beauty of Japanese culture.

There was a very little looting. People waited patiently for food despite the length of the line. This summer was all about saving electricity for Tohoku. It was over 90 degrees everyday, but the air conditioners on trains and some parts of shopping malls were off. But nobody ever complained. We had only one thing on our minds: to help rebuild Tohoku, and still today, we are striving for that.

Before the earthquake, nobody was truly patriotic. I was a little bit disappointed how people didn’t appreciate the country. After the quake,  I was very moved and proud of being Japanese. I’ve never seen people working as one for people who are suffering from this disaster.

Please, pray for us.

For more information/photos, click here.

If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say, Don’t Say Anything At All.

yrreskrap1 Comment

For the first time in a very long time, I was shocked and shaken to the very core. I was ashamed to know that I share the world with such narrow minded people and I was reminded of the ignorance and blind arrogance that plagues and clings to our society like a heavy, dirty rag.

A few days ago, my friend shared a YouTube video with me. It was a video of a blonde girl, Alexandra Wallace, from UCLA, singling out a group of people, stereotyping all Asians. Let me tell you, it was nothing short of disgusting. Click here to watch the video.

In her rant, she complained about the burdens of having Asians in the dorms on the weekend. Their family members come on the weekends to cook for them and she claimed that their parents were not letting them grow independent. Apparently, having parents who care for their children enough to come and cook homemade food for them is a huge nuisance for her. At this point, Alexandra left me thinking “Why does it matter to you?”

It only snowballed from that point.

Rolling her eyes, Alexandra continued to rant about Asians in the library. Apparently while poor Alex was studying her political science, Asians were always on the phone. She raised a mocking hand to her face and opened her flagrant mouth: “OHHH CHING CHONG BING BONG TING TONG.”She heartlessly disclaimed the severity of the earthquake in Japan and proudly mounted herself on a rocky pedestal of fool’s gold when she called herself “the polite, American girl.” She publicly and very ironically announced that Asians needed to learn “American manners.” Sadly, this queen bee, this high and mighty girl who studies political science has forgotten that America, a salad bowl of cultures, was founded on its immigrants. “American manners” is in part Asian manners as well as manners of Hispanics, Africans, Germans, Italians, and more.

What shocked me the most was the her complete dismissal of the disaster that has shocked Japan. In her few short words, she had repudiated the heartbreak and worry that the earthquake brought onto many. My friend, Minako Otake, could not sleep all night when she heard of the news because she was worried for her family at home. She was tense, waiting for the call to hear the comforting voice of her mom and dad telling her that they were okay and to know that they weren’t a part of the thousands that were reported to be injured or dead. My boyfriend’s family lives in Japan. As Alexandra called it, “the tsunami thing” is a very good excuse to answer a phone call in the library.

The motives for her video were racist, debasing, and facile. I am sure that Asian families aren’t the only “hoards” of people that come to visit on the weekends. I am sure that Asians aren’t the only ones in the library that are using their phones and I am sure that she has probably realized the magnitude of her words. In these 2 minutes and 52 seconds, Alexandra Wallace of UCLA proved her sheer ignorance.

I am Korean American and proud of it. I know that when I get into college, wherever that may be, my family will come visit me on the weekends too and bring me food and maybe do my laundry. It is not because I am Asian. It is because I know my family will try to make my first year of college as comfortable as it can be. I know that I will probably be one of the many people from different ethnicities that might use their phones in the library. I know that my language might sound like a harsh din of rushing vowels and clanging consonants to the foreign, prejudiced ear but it is most definitely not something to be mocked or ashamed of.

In a world where people strive to be different and find beauty in the rarity of things, it is remarkable and eye opening when I find someone so narrow minded and audacious as she. To label a group of people because of their roots is wrong. What kind of world would we live in if we were all one generic race, one generic language, and one generic look? Hopefully, Alexandra Wallace (and many others) will come to terms with the many cultures that constitute our diverse home that we call America. Until then, I hope, at the very least, the magnitude of her words and their ramifications has taught her that if she doesn’t have anything nice to say, she shouldn’t say anything at all.

Ran for Japan

shredicusmaximusLeave a comment

Today I partook in a nice run along Santa Monica‘s beach in the rain with a few friends. We ran for two miles and hung out for a while afterwards with all the snacks possible available to us. Why were we there you might ask. The title explains it all.

The Tokidoki relief run took place this morning and I wanted to partake. The funds from the 10 dollar entry fees went to the relief effort for the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. We would have bought T-shirts but thanks to the beaten up anime characters on them, we thought “yeah, a simple white t-shirt will do just fine.” They were cute little drawings though. The power rangers were there, and we took pictures with them. For more information please visit my Facebook account.

Josh Duhamel was running it which is the main reason why my friends and I ran into Fergie. Why Paris Hilton was there, well, we won’t argue with another good thing. For us, it was a good incentive to keep running. We wanted to catch up to them. Honestly, they’re well put together, but look the point is it was all in good fun for a good cause.

The day turned beautiful, we enjoyed the beach and chilled for a while afterwards, and got to see the hottest of the Black Eyed Peas. It was a good day to go to the beach, and we all walked away feeling like we had accomplished something special.

If you pay 10 dollars, you might have helped a small piece of Japan, but if you tell your friends and they tell theirs, then you have saved a nice chunk of it.

We Shouldn’t Be Afraid

weirdjenny1 Comment

nullWhile we are playing basketball, OVS freshmen Anthony Ho said” Hey! It’s raining, so we better go back to our room, because the rain has radioactive materials in it!” People in United States, especially in the west coast are aware of the radiation which leaks from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan.

However, Nolan Hertel, nuclear engineering researcher at Georgia Institute of Technology, said the United States is thousands of miles from the leaks and once the radiation gets into the air, it disperses and dilutes as the wind blows it.

Read More »

Microsoft Takes an Advantage of Japan’s Misery

vabenissimoLeave a comment

A tsunami swallowed the East Coast of Japan. Radiation penetrated through construction, livestock, plants, and the citizens. Earthquake of the magnitude 9.0 shook the cities with absolute terror.

And, what did Microsoft do?

The company slyly attempted to take an advantage of this ongoing adversity.

It tweeted, “How you can #SupportJapan – http://binged.it/fEh7iT. For every retweet, @bing will give $1 to Japan quake victims, up to $100K.”

Business Smart, but Ruthless.

In the midst of such suffering, Microsoft wanted to be the parasite of the suffering victims.

Discredited by a huge crowd for its vicious attempt to market Bing, the Microsoft retweeted, “We apologize the tweet was negatively perceived. Intent was to provide an easy way for people to help Japan. We have donated $100K.”

A round of applause for Microsoft’s generous offer, Please.

Let me rephrase — I did not mean “generous,”but “Heartless.”

Click here to view the article.

Dangerous Water

weirdjennyLeave a comment

The recent earthquake in Japan has created a huge tsunami, which has already killed more than 10,000 people. And the death toll is increasing. We usually think of water as soothing and caressing. However, it can be surprisingly destructive. Imagine that there is a body of water that has the same volume as a car. This water body is nearly 1700 pounds! And when this water body is moving at 30 miles per hour, like the tsunaminulli

 

in Japan, it can be extremely dangerous. And when the tsunami happened, it is not only a car that runs over you, it is a fleet of them. In addition, the tsunami will also bring dirt, rocks, cars, and trees, which will largely increase it’s destruction. So even if the wave only comes up to the knees, the force is enough to knock a person down. According to Harry Yeh, a professor of ocean engineering at Oregon State University, the energy of the tsunami is only a little bit less than an atomic bomb. Despite of all these negative characteristic of water’s power, we use this enormous power to generate much electricity!

A.P.E.S. Goes Ape

sennymcflyLeave a comment

Last week the AP Environmental Science class took a 5 hour journey across to the Owens Valley. The trip was specifically meant to teach us about water and its own journey from the Owens Valley River into L.A.’s water system. We saw the river, we saw Mono Lake, we saw the aquaducts, but one thing that caught my eye out of all the things we learned was the relocation camp known to us as Manzanar.

In the early 40’s America was faced with yet another war which led to a nationwide paranoia. So, as a result we decided to avoid “danger” and contain all Japanese people – citizens and non-citizens of the U.S. – in one area (in several different states). It was a relocation camp. President Franklin D. Roosevelt argued that this “cleansing” was justified because the government  would go about establishing the evacuation using “the American way”. We all know that that was just a euphemism for “we won’t kill them”….(unless of course they don’t follow our rules). Three cheers for the American way!

In the end, a trip that started out as an informative, water discovery, week-long, field trip turned into a heart breaking, mind changing, discovery of ourselves and our history.  Thank you Mr. Wickenhaeuser and thank you Ms. Davis for that amazing – and amusing – camping trip.