Amasian

Cultivating conscious consumers in kids with Team ENERGY STAR

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:01:00 +0000

Why? It's the question that plagues all parents of toddlers and preschoolers. Kids are endlessly curious about literally everything under the sun and beyond. I once found myself cornered when I could no longer explain Libyan foreign policy after my 4 year old overheard an NPR story.

When we don't have the answers, especially on important issues that affect us all, and that we all can act on (ahem, climate change), I'm grateful for resources for parents, like Team ENERGY STAR. It's an education program that motivates kids and their parents to make energy conservation a fun, family activity. And, it's created by the U.S. EPA so you know that it's backed by accurate information and honest intentions.

This year, Team ENERGY STAR is incorporating themes from the new summer blockbuster EPIC, which is about a young girl who is transported to a magical natural world, and embarks on a classic battle between good and evil. The movie sets up kids as environmental heroes, which is a great message to empower little ones to do their own part to save energy, protect the climate and save their parents some money in the process.

The EPA wants to capture those inspired actions, and reward kids for doing the right thing, which is why they've partnered with LG Electronics USA to get kids to share their stories through the Team ENERGY STAR website, www.energystar.gov/team. Winning entries will get some sweet ENERGY STAR certified electronics from LG, and their names and photos up in lights on LG's Times Square billboard.

So if your kid asks you why the summer is hot, or how the fridge makes food cold, encourage them to answer the question themselves, and catch their stories on your camera, or get your kid to write it down if they're older. If your kid wins, it'll do wonders to solidify their standing as a future conservationist and conscious consumer.

Here are some reasons why taking steps to save energy at home is so important. Did you know that...

The average house is responsible for more than 20,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, about twice as much as the average car
Electricity demand for U.S. homes is expected to climb by as much as 22 percent by 2035.
The typical household spends more than $2,000 per year on energy bills. With ENERGY STAR, you can save over one-third, or more than $760 on your household energy bills.
If every American household took the actions found in the ENERGY STAR Pledge, we would save more than130 billion KWh/year of electricity and save $23 billion in annual energy costs. We would prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from 21 million cars.

Find out more at www.energystar.gov/team

I found out about Team ENERGY STAR because I am a paid consultant for the U.S. EPA, however I was not compensated to write this post. I support the program and because I believe it is important to educate the public about energy efficiency and climate change.

Teaching a Toddler the Lesson of Conservation with Help from EPA's ENERGY STAR

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 00:26:00 +0000

One day my husband came home and found my son and me sitting on the floor playing.

"Why are you sitting in the dark?"

"What? Oh. I hadn't noticed!"

"Uh, yeah...why don't you turn on some lights in here?"

My husband often makes fun of me that I'm really used to low lights in our house and have a high tolerance for it because I grew up in an immigrant family where not wasting anything--energy, water, food, etc. was of paramount importance. Now that I think back on it, our family room was often lit by just one mah jong table lamp, which had an extendable arm and could be pointed to various spots around the room, and occasionally the TV.

It's true...in fact, early on I found myself teaching my son what the word "waste" meant, as he would do things that toddlers do--open the fridge when there was no need, turn on the faucet just to play with it, fill his kiddie pool beyond what was necessary. I found myself struggling with this explanation. After all, how do you teach kids not to waste something when that "thing" is so intangible? They can't see the reservoirs that hold our water, or the consequences of an overly taxed energy grid.

Energy efficient heating: snuggling with cat

That's why I'm really grateful for the efforts by folks at the Environmental Protection Agency for the tools they provide parents and kids to teach them the values of energy conservation. Not only is their information super accurate, but they make lessons fun and easy-to-digest, through their kids program Team ENERGY STAR, which is infused with a Lorax theme.

I borrowed The Lorax from the library and my son instantly loved it. He had empathy for the birds and the bears who were losing their homes, and understood that pollution was yucky and dirty. The use of the Lorax in Team ENERGY STAR, as well as their use of real incentives (I'll get to that in a minute) to motivate kids to conserve energy is smart and will make a big difference in educating the next generation of American consumers.

Right now through Sept. 17 if your child submits a story at www.energystar.gov/team (it can be a photo slide show, video or essay), he or she will be in the running to receive some sweet prizes, including:

The new Lorax DVD, which will go to the first 100 kids to submit essays
25 winners will receive ENERGY STAR certified electronics products donated by LG Electronics, including televisions, computer monitors, smart phones, and mouse scanners
Top winners will also be featured in Times Square on the LG billboard.
Plus, some of the winners may have a chance to participate in ENERGY STAR day in October with EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.

The social change geek in me sees this as a genius way to foster environmental education in a sneaky way--kind of like hiding spinach in brownies. The mom in me sees this as an important opportunity to make sure our kids learn the value of conservation (Albeit in a way that's self-serving. These are kids, after all!). Go ahead and enter, and sign up for other great aspects of the Team ENERGY STAR campaign at www.energystar.gov/team.

Disclosure: I found out about this contest because I am a paid consultant for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, however I was not paid to write this post. I am a long-time supporter of environmental and health issues.

Tongue Tied: Are we losing our ethnic language?

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 20:32:00 +0000

It’s a common experience for most Asian Americans: people assuming that we can’t speak English. This misjudgment confronts us on the street—yelled angrily at us and muttered under people’s breath. It can be unwittingly revealed at social events by people who compliment us on “how good our English is!” It even surfaced in the midst of this year’s gubernatorial race, when a Rob McKenna staffer tweeted, “Shut up and speak English #Asians.”

Asian Americans who only speak English find this particularly ironic. For me, as a fluent English speaker who majored in English lit and is probably more familiar with Spenser, Coleridge and Dickinson than your average racist on the street, this stereotype is particularly laughable.

I didn’t start learning Mandarin until college, where I studied abroad in Shanghai, so I’ve experienced both sides of the fence: an Asian American who communicates in English only, and someone who can speak both English and the language of my family’s heritage.

For me, I wanted to be able to communicate with my relatives and better understand where I came from. Mandarin curriculum wasn’t an option in high school, and my parents pulled us out of Chinese school when I was little—the fact that we hated it and was an hour’s drive away helped them along in that decision. So in college I dove in and double majored in Chinese, and never regretted it. The experiences and people I was able to meet through learning my heritage’s native language have helped shape who I am today.

But I can understand the perspective of other APIs, who feel that learning Vietnamese, Japanese or any of the hundreds of dialects from their home countries isn’t something that they want or need to do.
The reasons for this “loss of language” are wrapped up in a number of psychological and sociological issues that APIs grapple with. For some third or fourth generation Japanese in the Northwest, the Japanese language was lost, because speaking it in public, or even at home, was discouraged due to anti-Japanese sentiment during World War II. For others, second language learning tends to become de-prioritized by those who are taking on a rigorous academic schedule.

“Given the heavy academic load that many Asian American students are facing, it is easy to de-prioritize learning their native languages especially when they feel that they already use it at home and that there are no advanced level language classes available until college,” says Rebecca Deng, media director for TD Wang Advertising Group.

T.D. Wang, a local advertising agency that specializes in culturally relevant advertising and marketing campaigns, makes the point that bilingualism is “almost a requirement to succeed” in that industry. In fact, 100 percent of their employees are bilingual. However, when second language acquisition is most important, during childhood and adolescence, children often don’t understand the value that being bilingual can bring to their future profession, so it’s left to the parents to enforce.

“When I was younger I never understood the need to speak Vietnamese, because my mom understood English and spoke English to me no matter how broken or accented it was,” says Tuyen Than, a Vietnamese American student at UW. “I felt more of a need to fit in rather than be different. As I got older, the language gap between my family and me grew larger and larger. When I finally saw my dad and his family (my parents are separated), I could barely communicate with him.”

Some immigrant parents are fearful that if their children don’t speak English well, they won’t succeed, or they’ll experience racism. Or, they may believe that only certain languages, such as Mandarin or Japanese, rather than a lesser-known dialect, will be useful in the workplace. Some parents merely don’t have the time or resources to enforce native language learning in the home, and their own English is fluent enough, so that communicating in English is just easier.

As the mother of a three year old, I’ve found that raising bilingual kids is actually harder when the parents’ English is native or fluent, because the temptation to speak English is just far too great. For parents who only speak their native tongue, they can expect that English language acquisition will come to a child through attending public schools, television, movies and books. But the farther removed a parent is from one’s native culture, the harder it is to maintain social interactions “in-language” that demonstrate to the child that Asian language learning is more than just a chore or homework, but simply a natural way that people communicate.
If that’s the case, second and third generations of APIs may slowly find their language fluency slipping away, unless there are more concerted efforts to boost native language learning among parents and youth.

Uninformed, prejudiced notions such as those demonstrated by the McKenna staffer will likely always be a presence in the lives of APIs. However taking pride in one’s own culture and identity, no matter what language it’s in, is often the best revenge.

This story originally appeared in the International Examiner.

Why is Bullying Worst for Asians?

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 21:27:00 +0000

“They were chasing me all year, and hit me in front of my house. I felt very upset and didn’t know what to do.”

“When I came back to school they tried to shoot me with a gun. They showed me a gun and I ran away.”

“The teacher doesn’t listen to us. I feel depressed or afraid to go to school. I have nightmares.”

Unfortunately, the stories of these Burmese refugees are not unusual. Two separate studies, one by the U.S. Department of Education and one by UCLA, have found that Asian Americans endure far more bullying in schools than other ethnic groups. The Department of Education research, which interviewed 6,500 students from age 12-18, found that 54 percent of Asian American teenagers said they were bullied in the classroom, sharply above the 31.3 percent of whites who reported being picked on.

“This data is absolutely unacceptable and it must change. Our children have to be able to go to school free of fear,” US Education Secretary Arne Duncan said during a forum on the topic.

The figure was 38.4 percent for African Americans and 34.3 percent for Hispanics. Policymakers see a range of reasons for the harassment, including language barriers facing some Asian American students. Some in the API community have also commented that this situation also has to do with how Asian parents are raising their kids. Not preparing kids for how to defend themselves, and encouraging non-confrontation have made them easy targets for people to take out their sometimes racist, prejudiced beliefs.

It’s a hard dose of reality, but the truth is that bullying does not stop in the schools. Incidents of hazing in the military, workplace bullying and even bullying of seniors have all taken spotlight recently.

Congressman Judy Chu has requested Congressional hearings on the subject of military hazing and harassment prevention policies, following a series of high-profile hazing incidents, including one that led to the death of her nephew, Lance Corporal Harry Lew, in April of last year.

“The hazing of our nation’s defenders is inexcusable,” said Congresswoman Chu. “These brave men and women volunteer to be placed in harm’s way to protect our country. They deserve better than to face discrimination or malicious treatment from their fellow soldiers in return. I know firsthand about the pain a family faces when hazing leads to the loss of a loved one, and it is something no family should have to endure.”

Congressman Chu’s nephew, Harry Lew, was a 21-year-old lance corporal in the Marines, who was found asleep on guard duty in Afghanistan one night last April. After a sergeant announced over the radio that “peers should correct peers,” his fellow lance corporals ordered him to do push-ups, then stomped on his back and legs; poured sand in his mouth; punched him in the back of his helmet; and forced him to dig a chest-deep foxhole. At 3:43 a.m., while crouching in the foxhole, he shot himself in the head.

Lance Corporal Jacob Jacoby, who pleaded guilty to assault in Lew’s case, was sentenced to 30 days in jail, and will have his rank reduced to private class. The judge in Jacoby’s court martial said that she found no evidence that the abuse led to Lew’s suicide, even though his death occurred just 22 minutes after the incident.

Understanding how to combat bullying starts with understanding bullying behavior at its earliest stage—this is when it has the best chance of being corrected, during childhood. According to Seattle Children’s Hospital, children bully for many reasons. Some bully because they feel insecure, and picking on someone different, or physically weaker provides a feeling of being more important, popular, in control. In some cases, bullying is part of an ongoing pattern of aggressive behavior, and these children are unable to manage their anger in an appropriate way. These cases should be identified early so that professional counseling can help them learn to deal with their feelings, curb bullying and improve their social skills.

Other kids bully at school and other settings because they are copying behavior they are seeing in their own homes. People who are exposed to aggressive interactions within their own families often learn to treat others the same way, thus perpetuating a vicious cycle.

It can be difficult for parents to stay on top of bullying behavior that is taking place electronically—although this can be just as vicious. The Department of Education study found that teenagers in Asian communities are three times as likely to face taunts on the Internet. Over 60 percent of Asian American youth reported being bullied online every month. Only 18.1 percent of Caucasian students said the same thing.

Although social networking sites can make teenagers feel as if they are constantly watched by their peers, there is a ray of hope in this social media landscape. Sharing stories and videos online can galvanize supporters outside of a bullied person’s immediate community. For example, the It Gets Better Project, started by Seattle’s Dan Savage, posts videos by high profile celebrities and other LGBT community supporters, including President Obama, which encourage gay teenagers by telling them that life does get better, and to focus on the future.

The documentary movie “Bully” has an online site where parents, teachers, students and advocates can learn more about bullying, download toolkits, and take actions to stop and report bullying.

For more information on bullying, go to:

www.thebullyproject.com
www.seattlechildrens.org
www.acrs.org
www.chu.house.gov/hazing

This story originally appeared in the International Examiner on July 4, 2012.

Green Momma Parties: My Detoxifying Lifesaver

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 22:02:00 +0000

For several months I’ve been eagerly awaiting the launch of Women’s Voices for the Earth’s new Green Momma Parties! They’re a spin-off of WVE’s Green Cleaning Parties, which gave people all the tools they needed to make their own cleaners and reduce the amount of chemicals in their homes. The Green Momma Parties are designed for baby showers, parents’ groups or get-togethers with friends. They’re all about educating parents about reducing toxic chemicals in the home, while empowering them to become advocates for safer products at the same time.

This winter I found out that I’m expecting again. For those who didn’t know yet, surpriiiiise!! I’m due at the end of September and it’s a boy again, and yes, I’m completely unprepared for the chaos of having 2 kids. I’m the type of person who can anticipate how much chaos there will be, and instead of furiously trying to figure things out for myself, I look for tools to make things easier. That, and I procrastinate. The Green Momma Party Guide is one of those tools, because it gives you totally manageable, affordable solutions that anyone can do, no matter where you live or how much money you have. Awesome.

One piece of advice in the guide that I thought was super valuable is this: “wash your baby simply with castile soap and water.” With my first baby, we used the Johnson & Johnson soap that the hospital sent us home with, and bathed him about every other day. He ended up with horrible eczema and cradle cap, and still has flair ups now and then. Now, we make sure we only use castile soap and water with him, and limit baths to twice a week. For anyone whose children are having skin troubles, try this first before trying out other skin care solutions. We found that it really cleared things up.

These tidbits of advice are best learned from other moms, and WVE recognizes that new moms learn best from other moms. That’s why I think the Green Momma Parties are so genius—they provide accurate, scientific information and recipes tested by experts, but encourage a format that allows women to empower and support each other.

It is estimated that between 80,000 and 85,000 chemicals are in use in the environment in United States, yet only about 200 of these chemicals have been tested for safety. Women’s Voices for the Earth believes that all products, especially those for vulnerable populations like babies, should be safe and non-toxic.

To sign up to host a party, go to www.womensvoices.org. And while you’re there, sign up to become a member and consider donating to this fabulous organization!

**Disclosure, I am a paid communications consultant for Women’s Voices for the Earth, and they are one of my favorite clients

Let's (not) talk about sex

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:18:00 +0000

If stereotypical Asian parents drove cars like they doled out sex advice, you’d be experiencing some serious whiplash.

“Sex just isn’t talked about. It’s shameful. And then there’s all this pressure to have children, and lots of children,” said Katherine, a 39 year-old Chinese American.

This typical “abstinence until it’s time to get married and have lots of children" policy can send a potentially sexually active young adult into a tailspin.

New studies have shown that due to unique stigmas and a lack of communication on sexual health and sexual education in the home, Asian Pacific Islander Americans have lower rates of condom use, lower rates of HIV testing and, in some groups, high teenage pregnancy rates.

While many American adolescents have to suffer through the “sex talk” with their parents, most Asian American families avoid the subject entirely, and API youths have to rely on the public school system, friends, books or movies for their sexual education. Discussing sex is an extremely personal topic, and infused with taboo and assumptions. Many parents fear that even bringing up the topic of sex will actually encourage their children to become sexually active, even though a study by the University of Washington found that students who received comprehensive sex education are half as likely to become teen parents as those who get none or abstinence-only sex education.

According to the National Asian Women’s Healthy Organization, more than half of Asian American women are uncomfortable talking about sexual and reproductive health with their mothers, and even more so with the male figures in the family.

“In my household, sex was hardly ever brought up,” said Justin, a 31-year-old Filipino American. “It was assumed that I came out of the ether, basically and that’s how it was.” But at the same time, living in America and being surrounded by American media, Justin was inundated with sexual images and stories. His mom’s solution? “Cover your eyes until I say when!”

All of this silence and trusting that other people will do the important job of educating young people about sexual health and the risks involved with sexual activity, has resulted in some surprising figures. The model minority myth has furthered the assumption that most API youths are not sexually active — they’re too busy studying and trying to get into a good college. That’s true to some extent. Compared to the national average, female API high school students are less likely to have had intercourse, and they lose their virginity at a later age, according to a study in the Journal of Adolescent Health. But, API youth were significantly less likely to use condoms at first intercourse than all other ethnic groups, according to a 2006 study by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (known as Add Health).

While Asian Americans may have lower rates of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases than other racial and ethnic groups, HIV infection is growing at the fastest rate among Asian Americans — 14.3 percent for women and 8.1 percent for men between 2001 and 2004, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Advocates for Youth, a national nonprofit that helps young people make informed and responsible decisions about their sexual health, cites some cultural assets that APIs have that could set the right course for healthy, knowledgeable API youth, but those assets have to be utilized. A high level of parental involvement in their children’s lives in Asian families is a significant factor in helping youths to make the decision to not jump into sexual relationships too early. In a survey, API youth were more likely than any other youth to believe their parents would disapprove of them having sex. Fewer than 10 percent of young API women in the Add Health study who reported a high level of parental involvement reported having had intercourse.

Avoiding the subject with teens, or dropping vague but stern notions of disapproval that “boys are bad” may be as effective as stopping a moving train. But just stopping the train isn’t enough. Eventually, everyone needs to learn how to ride the train, and safely. That’s where Asian parents leave their comfort zone and leave it up to others to educate their children. Studies show that young API women have a high level of confidence about themselves, enough to refrain from sexual activity. An important step is using that self-confidence to apply it to healthy sexual behaviors, such as contraception and reproductive health care.

Thirty-three year old Anna said that situation exactly describes her sexual health experiences. “I felt comfortable enough with my own decisions that I wasn’t ready for sex in high school. But then when I was ready, I definitely could’ve been more responsible with my choices in using contraception and practicing good reproductive health,” she said. “The sex ed classes in high school didn’t make much of an impression on me — not as much as a close personal conversation with someone close to me would have.”

Economic and social barriers can have just as much impact, with parents working multiple jobs, or immigrants and refugees lacking insurance and a comprehensive support network.

Older siblings sometimes step in to fill that role of educator. “In 4th grade, my brother and sister broke into my dad’s porn stash, and they forced me to watch this movie with them so I knew,” says Justin. “I resisted and didn’t want anything to do with it, but my siblings were like, ‘this isn’t that big of a deal, so just get over it.’ They were my guides, because my parents were too busy keeping the family going.”

For more information, go to www.advocatesforyouth.org or www.plannedparenthood.org/ppgnw.

The original version of this story was published in the International Examiner

A Green Year of the Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:01:00 +0000

Lunar New Year is just around the corner--and it's the year of the dragon! This brings a special oooooh factor to the annual festivities. The dragon is the zodiac symbol of power. Most of the dragons I know have big, sparkling personalities, or convey a quiet strength that you need to respect.

In honor of Lunar New Year, I've offered some tips on how to go green with your New Year's celebration:

Reuse those hong bao. The little red envelopes of money you receive from your parents and relatives shouldn't be thrown out--they're too pretty to not reuse. As a general safe rule, if you're a married adult, you should give out hong bao to kids at the celebration. Most adults also receive hong bao from their parents and grandparents (since we're always kids in their mind). $20-50 is considered polite if you can swing it.
Spend your money wisely. Lunar New Year is usually a time when younger folks find themselves flush with cash. Encourage smart spending, rather than sending it down the tubes by buying some new tops at H&M. Consider energy efficiency upgrades--they'll save you money! Start a little fund to trade in a clunker for a hybrid. And there's always the college fund.
Winter is the time for citrus! When giving oranges, go organic. They may be a bit more expensive but they're so much juicier and sweeter.
When doing your New Year's cleaning, use green cleaners wherever possible. They're easy to make, and you won't expose your guests or your family to noxious toxic fumes. Great recipes available at Women's Voices for the Earth's website.
If you're planning for a whole fish or seafood at your New Year's feast, find out which species aren't in danger of being overfished at the Monterey Bay Aquarium's website.
So you need to look spiffy and wear something new for New Year's. But do you really need another new outfit? Reach out to a friend whose style you admire (and who's the same size as you) and borrow and share clothes. Clothing swaps are a great way to refresh your wardrobe all year round!
Make your own New Year's cards. You'll be reviving an old world tradition, and the extra care and thought will be much appreciated.
Ok, I really didn't think there was such a thing as green fireworks, but there is! Check this out. I can't really vouch for how green they are, but no matter what fireworks you use, be sure to clean up wrappers so they don't get stuck in gutters and eventually get washed into storm sewers and into bodies of water. Or, opt for a quieter New Year's--the birds and your neighbors will appreciate it!

I hope these tips inspire some of you to go green with your New Year's celebration! 新年快乐!

Is fishing making you sick? A look at the Duwamish

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 21:17:00 +0000

Most Seattleites can rattle off the city’s famous, iconic waterways — Elliott Bay, Lake Washington, Lake Union … but asking about Seattle’s hometown river, and how to get there, is a head-scratching exercise. The fact is that there is a reason the Duwamish River isn’t a favorite recreation destination. Years of neglect and its location right next to heavy industrial areas in South Seattle have resulted in high levels of pollution and lost natural areas. So much so, that the federal government has designated the Duwamish a Superfund site.

The neighborhoods surrounding the Duwamish River are largely low-income, diverse communities burdened with unusually high exposures to air, land and water pollution and health stressors such as lack of access to healthy food and green/open space for physical activity. The area has King County’s highest asthma hospitalization rate and ranks among Seattle’s highest diabetes rates.

Despite the heavy pollution, seafood and wildlife are still present in the area, including rockfish, perch, clams, Dungeness crab and salmon. Salmon are safer because they spend most of their lives in the ocean, but others are loaded with cancer-causing PCBs, arsenic and dioxin, chemicals that can be particularly harmful to pregnant women, nursing mothers and children. Although there are public health advisories against eating seafood from the Duwamish, an untold number of immigrants continue to fish and eat seafood from the river.

“We know that a lot of people who are fishing here are Asian Pacific Islanders and Hispanics, who fished in their home country and want to fish here. That’s why we want to raise awareness between the link between contamination and eating fish,” says Renee Dagseth community involvement coordinator with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

That’s one of the reasons why the EPA, the Washington Department of Health and the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition puts on the Duwamish River Festival every year, as a way to both educate the community on the risks of eating contaminated seafood, and demonstrate cleanup progress. This year, the Aug. 27 festival saw over 1,000 people come and partake in the festivities. In addition to the festival, the state Department of Health posts warning signs in eight languages, including Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese.

Despite all of these efforts, people still regularly catch and eat seafood from the river. Some may not know or understand the pollution risk, while others may be low-income and simply can’t afford to buy seafood. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials have revealed that some APIs may be subsistence fishing without a license, so are reluctant to admit the seafood they’ve caught. Distrust of government officials is also higher among immigrant communities.

Given that higher numbers of APIs and other minorities eat this contaminated seafood, there is a higher risk of these populations developing health problems associated with exposure to these toxic chemicals. Those health problems include increased risk of a number of cancers, including liver, kidney, prostate and breast cancer, linked with PCB exposure. The more contaminated seafood one eats, the greater these health risks become. Although the government doesn’t have any toxicology studies determining that these populations are in fact contaminated with higher levels of harmful, toxic chemicals, they’ve held several community meetings with Filipino, Vietnamese, Hmong and Lao groups, who have admitted to eating seafood from the river.

Many API populations eat larger amounts of seafood because it’s central to their native cuisine, and furthermore, APIs are more likely to eat the parts of the seafood that carry toxins — such as the liver and the head. Although government officials may not be able to tell people to not eat seafood, they are attempting to give them safer options. For example, removing the skin, fat and internal organs of the fish before cooking, not eating the guts of crabs, and limiting portion size and number of seafood servings per week.

“My family doesn’t fish here because we heard a lot of stuff about seafood at the Duwamish being polluted,” says Som Phimmachack, a volunteer with the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition. “But if they get this place cleaned up to par, and Boeing keeps its word, I think people will come back, especially the elder Asians, because I think they’d really love to be able to fish here.”

That vision for a healthy Duwamish is something that the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition would like to share with a larger majority of Seattleites, so that more citizens can take pride in Seattle’s hometown river, volunteer for the cause and take an active part in commenting on the EPA’s new cleanup plan.

“How much the river gets cleaned up will have a huge impact on whether it’s safe for people to start fishing again,” says the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition’s BJ Cummings. “EPA needs to hear from people who now do or want to be able to fish in the river in the future, or the cleanup won’t go far enough to protect them.” To help the fishing communities participate and be heard, the Coalition hires multi-lingual interpreters and is launching the Healthy Communities Project to help identify and address health issues.

Want to get Involved?

Duwamish Valley Healthy Communities Project Kick-Off Event: November 10, 6 – 9 p.m. Location TBA. See www.duwamishcleanup.org for more information. To request a boat tour of the river, contact Alberto@duwamishcleanup.org.Multi-lingual tours are available to groups upon request.

Growing up Asian in a Small Town

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 20:26:00 +0000

The unique experiences of Asians and Pacific Islanders in small towns are occurring in increasing numbers, as more and more APIs move into suburbs and smaller towns, according to recent census figures. One’s isolation as one of the only minorities in town are compounded when compared to the close-knit communities of home countries, rich in the tastes, sounds and languages deeply embedded in API identity.
I grew up in a small town called Longmeadow, a white chapeled town in western Massachusetts withpre-Revolutionary War roots and a population of about 15,000. My parents moved there for the schools, after my dad got a job as a chemical engineer at Monsanto. They decided it was a good place to raise children — away from the crime of the big city — but also away from any strong notions of culture. We became one of the only Chinese families in the town.

I remember in 4th grade, when LeKeisha Blackwell, who lived in the neighboring city of Springfield, whispered to me during class, “What are you? I’m black, what are you? Write it down.”

I thought to myself, well, my skin isn’t black, it looked white to me. So I started to write down “white” on a slip of paper. She interrupted me.

“No, you aren’t white, like where are you from?”

“Oh … I’m Chinese.”

At this early age, I didn’t truly understand the concept of race and identity — I thought it was just a matter of skin color. It wasn’t until later on that I became more aware of how my ethnicity made me unique, and came to celebrate that uniqueness, rather than be ashamed of it.

Trying to “fit in” in middle and high school can be a painful process — when you’re a minority with a funny name, parents with accents and sometimes you come to school reeking of the tea eggs your mother just made, double that pain. And yet, thousands of APIs repeat this experience every day, rather than seeking refuge in large API-rich enclaves in big cities — the Chinatowns, Koreatowns, Little Saigons, etc.

According to 2010 Census figures, suburbs surrounding Seattle such as Kent, Tukwila, Redmond and Sammamish have had at least a 10 percent increase in the Asian population within ten years. Sammamish, formerly a small town, is said to be the fastest growing city in the state. Economic and education motivators continue to push APIs into newer, more culturally unfamiliar places.

Given these findings, what are the repercussions of these living choices, on one’s concept of race, identity and culture? And how do these changed notions of culture affect one’s relationships with the generations of elders?

Mary Nguyen grew up in the only Vietnamese family in Longview, Wash., which hugs the Washington-Oregon border along I-5. She says she faced fearful intimidation.

“Going through public schools, I didn’t want anyone to know I was Vietnamese,” said Nguyen. “People hated me because of my face. I remember knowing that it’d be just so much easier to be white … When you grow up in your small town, you’re not recognizing your family life in anything you’re seeing, including figures of authority.

Since then, Nguyen has utilized her experience into defending the rights and identities of others. She has led the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF)’s Seattle Chapter and is a UFCW 21 labor community organizer.

“In college I sought out NAPAWF and that was the first time that I felt ok to really own up to my identity and relate to other API women,” said Nguyen.

Nguyen says that when she went to Vietnam for the first time, she was thrilled at the opportunity, but disappointed in her first month when her American accent conveyed the image of a traitorous, privileged American. “I thought, ‘where do I fit in?’” asked Nguyen. “I obviously don’t fit in in the States, and I didn’t “fit in” in Vietnam. I still struggle with that.”

Coming to terms with one’s own racial identity in relationship to others living in the U.S. shapes where we work, the relationships we choose, and where we live. Growing up in a small town that may have deeply ingrained prejudices toward minorities, a person can either be an outcast, seek bonds with other minorities and remain acutely aware of their ethnic identity, or, one could assimilate to American culture so much that their home culture doesn’t factor into their life choices much at all.

People arrive in the United States as refugees or as immigrants, and from a vast variety of cultures. As a result, Asian American concepts of race and identity are hugely diverse.

Growing up in a small town in Massachusetts, I wasn’t ignorant to how other young APIs were establishing themselves in the U.S. Every year, we made several trips to visit my grandparents, who lived in Queens and Manhattan’s Chinatown. Here, my parents reveled in the traditional Shanghaiese food, live fish and fresh produce and the ability to laugh and debate with their siblings and friends over dim sum and banquet dinners. While riding the elevators in my grandparents’ high rise apartment building, I would glance at the Chinese kids, speaking Cantonese fluently with their parents, decked out in Chinatown garb. I was always a bit jealous, knowing that they weren’t bound by the pressure to look like an Abercrombie model, and were fully at home in their community that so effectively imitated China.

But I can understand why my parents chose to raise my sisters and me in a small town community, despite the discrimination they faced from close-minded people. Vandalism, threatening phone calls, exclusion and name-calling are all scars on their and our lives, which will forever shape how we perceive America and ourselves.

Right now, towns all over the U.S. are in a transition. Hopefully, if towns become more and more diverse and open-minded, minorities will no longer feel the need to cover up their identities, but celebrate their culture with pride and conviction.

This article first appeared in the International Examiner, at http://www.iexaminer.org/news/small-town-life/

Images: A house in Longmeadow, Mass. and a shot of Manhattan, Chinatown. My two contrasting worlds.

Do APIs Have Equal Access to Organic Food?

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 23:43:00 +0000

Last month, the USDA released an online food “desert” locater where one can view areas that are considered “food deserts”, based on the percentage of the population considered low-income, and the distance away from major supermarkets. Parts of West Seattle, Renton and Skyway are encompassed in big pink masses on the map. According to the site, one area in Renton has 2,174 people with low access to food. Among those with low access, 240 of them are considered low-income, 342 are children and 402 are seniors.

Food deserts are common in rural, urban and industrial areas, where high poverty rates combined with low access to healthy, affordable food can result in high obesity rates and poor nutrition. Eliminating food deserts through outreach to supermarket chains and community education is seen as just as much a social justice issue, as it is a health issue.

As negative health impacts are increasingly linked to exposure to pesticides used to grow conventionally-grown produce, urban areas that are flush with supermarkets are grappling with another issue. Is it possible to live in another kind of food desert — an organic food desert? And, could even moderate levels of poverty, or cultural notions of thrift, actually promote organic food deserts?

The choice to eat organic reflects a cultural rift in Seattle, and across the country. Those who are educated about health impacts, the environmental toll of nitrogen pollution in our waterways, and the fossil fuels that are burned to ship produce all over the world, can often afford to eat all organic.

For others, especially those in the Asian community, culture trumps all of these concerns. Upscale supermarkets like Whole Foods and Metropolitan market sell loads of (expensive) organic produce, but their selection of leafy green choy would leave any serious Chinese cook running for an Asian grocery.

Varieties of noodles, precisely mixed sauces, live fish and exotic mushrooms make up the dishes that are ingrained in our culture, and remind us of home and our families. All these ingredients are readily available to those living in my neighborhood in south Seattle, but are largely not organic.

To find out how many Asian groceries in my neighborhood offered organic produce, I did a little field research. I walked to my neighborhood market, Mekong Grocery on Rainier Ave. S., and asked an employee if any of the produce was organic. He said no, and that in the two years he’d worked there, he’d only seen organic baby bananas, once. I then went over to the new Othello Public Market on MLK and Othello. They have a diverse selection of produce for Latino and Asian communities, but nothing was organic.

“Our number one priority is to keep produce as accessible as possible,” said Mateo Monda, the market manager. Often organic produce is too expensive if they want to move it quickly, explains Mondo. Othello Public Market does plan to have local Washington produce, but not until another month or so. At Viet-Wah, the story wasn’t much different. The produce mostly comes from California, Mexico in the winter, with Washington fruit coming in the summer. It was not organic except for some tangerines, the produce manager told me. The barrier? Price.

So what can one do, if one wants to continue cooking Asian food, eat organic, and not spend a fortune? There are some options for gaining access to organic foods, that doesn’t mean trekking across town to an expensive upscale supermarket. For example:

• Cowpool. You and a group of people can organize to buy a whole, grass-fed cow from a local small-scale farm, rather than buying meat from an industrial factory farm. An eighth of a cow can be enough for a small family of three, is cheaper than buying organic meat from the supermarket, and you can request specific cuts, such as the tail, cheek, tongue and tripe. Cascade Range Beef is one company that handles cow shares. Harvest is available annually in spring.
• Farmer’s markets. There are now weekly farmer’s markets in nearly all neighborhoods in Seattle during the summer, including Columbia City, the Central District and West Seattle. Events, hours and locations are at www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org. Deals on organic produce can be found, depending on the item, season and vendor.

• Be selective. If you’d like to incorporate more organic foods into your family’s diet, focus on apples, bell peppers, berries, celery, cherries, grapes (imported), lettuce, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, spinach, and strawberries, as they tend to be the ones that contain the highest levels of pesticides. Environmental Working Group has a full list of best and worst fruits and veggies at http://www.foodnews.org/fulllist.php.

• Community supported agriculture, or CSA is an alternative food network where individuals support local farming communities by purchasing a weekly or bi-weekly delivery or pick-up of organic produce, and sometimes dairy or meat. CSAs available in Seattle include Full Circle Farms, Tiny’s Organics and SPUD.

There isn’t conclusive science finding that those eating non-organic produce are far worse off than those who eat all organic. But, there have been studies finding that babies exposed to high levels of common pesticides in the womb have lower IQ scores than their peers. Pregnant women and parents of young children, especially, are choosing organic produce when it’s economically viable, as a precaution.

If you do live in a food desert, visit www.healthycornerstores.org for tips on how to build community support for healthier products at your nearest corner store. After you’ve developed a plan, reach out to your mayor and city council — they should want to work with you, especially if they have already introduced any special initiatives promoting healthy food, nutrition or wellness.

Above all, choice is precious. Those who have access to fresh, affordable produce that they can incorporate into their culture’s dishes are fortunate, to say the least. But if some are exposed to higher risks for types of cancers, reproductive problems, lower IQ and developmental disorders because of the food options they have, organic food deserts become an important problem to eliminate.

Sian Wu has been covering environment, human rights and politics for the International Examiner for seven years. As her day job, she works at a communications firm specializing in environment and public health issues. You can reach her at sianwu@yahoo.com.

This piece first appeared in the International Examiner, at http://www.iexaminer.org/news/food-nutrition-apis-equal-access/

Just an A? Why not A+? On "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior"

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 04:47:00 +0000

I have a Chinese mother--and I am a Chinese mother. Am I superior, as Amy Chua posits in her article in the Wall St. Journal, "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior?" Well, seeing as my son is only two, I can't attest to my parenting skills yet. Whenever my mom would complain that I wasn't studying hard enough and wouldn't get into a good college, (or even ask why I got an A, not an A+) I would compare myself to the absolute worst alternative. "Well, at least I'm not a teenage prostitute!" or "At least I'm not a drug addict lying in a ditch somewhere!" And I'm proud to say I'm still not either of those. Instead, I work at a nonprofit environmental communications firm, my husband of seven years works at a private school. We own our own home, have a cat and and an adorable bilingual toddler. I'm well-adjusted and get along with my parents and my sisters.

So did my mom's Chinese parenting technique work on me? I'd say yes. But there's no telling how I'd turn out if my childhood weren't punctuated with a healthy balance of Americanization.

I grew up in a typical middle class Chinese American household in Western Massachusetts, with three sisters. While my childhood did follow some of Amy Chua's prescription: private violin and piano lessons, outrage over a B, chastising over one's imperfect looks or manners and a clear, outlined expectation to be "The BEST" at something. But my parents also in large part let us sisters entertain ourselves. When we were young and the SATs weren't looming, we'd spend large parts of our days acting out elaborative imaginative scenarios with no toys, playing outside, climbing trees and collecting worms and rocks, swimming in lakes and the town pool, and taking home huge stacks of children's books from the library, which our parents dutifully read to us. When we grew older, we all ran cross country and track, meaning we'd come home, stinking of sneakers and locker room and huddle over the dinner table, and completely house chicken wings and Oreos as an after school snack. Never gaining any weight, though (we were Asian, after all). My dad was a big cheerleader of our sports although my mom never thought it was appropriate for a girl to exert herself so much.

My parents came from much more impoverished upbringings, and being in the U.S. offered a new hope for us American kids. Studying hard and doing well was a privilege for my dad--not everyone in his family had the option to study all the way through to their Ph.D. Others, like my uncle, had to quit school to provide for the family--with many hungry mouths to feed in post-World War China.

Chua's notion of working hard at something until you're so good at it it's fun is one route. But who's to say that the fun social skills one develops when they're a teenager aren't useful for their future success? After all, it was the popular, funny, eloquent, sociable kids who got elected class president, and that looks just as good if not better on a college application than principal second in the regional junior orchestra.

Another reason Chinese kids may be more successful that Chua doesn't mention is that these households are more likely to have a grandparent in the home. In Chinese households, living with one's elders is a cultural norm, whereas Americans are more likely to embrace retirement and nursing homes. When a child has a grandparent in the home, they get used to moving at a slower pace, and naturally develop a sense of patience. Grandparents can also help children with homework after school while parents are still working, and provide valuable perspective on frugality and hard work. Just the patience skill alone can be hugely valuable in elementary school education, when a student's achievement can grow leaps and bounds simply by sitting still, listening to the teacher and following instructions. Asian kids aren't necessarily smarter, they may just be better concentrators.

But these Asian kids who get great grades and go to good colleges, and get offered jobs at top companies, are they earning as much as their white counterparts? Studies say no. Maybe it's that deep-seated xenophobia that has afflicted Americans since the 19th century. Or maybe it's that these professionals are still a little socially awkward--after all those years of missing out on sleepovers and school plays.

I do agree with Chua that Chinese mothers are right in expecting strength from their children instead of fragility. If parents don't believe in their children, who will? But expecting strength also means seeing strength in a variety of different talents--not pushing skills that are seen as most likely to result in a high salary career. And maybe American parents would do well to expect the highest aptitude, rather than 'just good enough.' The A+ is there for a reason, after all.

I hope to raise my toddler with healthy balances of an American and Chinese upbringing. Hopefully if/when he first strikes that awful note on his half size violin, I'll know what to say--whether it's "great job" or "work harder!"

Shiny locks of formaldehyde? No thanks, Brazilian Blowout.

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 16:55:00 +0000

Stylists and customers have long suspected that the hair smoothing product popular with celebrities, the Brazilian Blowout, contains formaldehyde. The symptoms were too harsh to ignore--burning eyes, difficulty breathing, nose bleeds...

Now it's more than just a rumor. A toxicology lab in Portland, Ore. has confirmed results by analyzing two samples by Brazilian Blowout--the Brazilian Blowout Solution and the Acai Professional Smoothing Solution. Both products contain dangerously high levels of the suspected carcinogen formaldehyde—at 4.85 percent and 10.6 percent, respectively.

California-based Brazilian Blowout manufactures the products, which they claim to be “formaldehyde free.” The samples were taken to Oregon Health & Science University for testing after staff at a Portland salon reported difficulty breathing, nose bleeds and eye irritation when using the product as directed. The material safety data sheet (which should list hazardous chemicals) listed no formaldehyde. If a product contains more than 0.1% formaldehyde, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration requires the manufacturer to list it on the material safety data sheet.

I'm with Erin at Women's Voices for the Earth: “It’s incredibly disturbing that it’s taken salon workers getting sick to expose the fact that popular products contain a suspected carcinogen,” says Erin Switalski of Women’s Voices for the Earth, an environmental health advocacy group and co-founder of the National Healthy Nail Salon Alliance, a national network of health advocates and researchers working for safe salons. “Clearly, the nation’s laws regulating these products are failing workers and consumers alike.”

And, what's more, the Canadian government has been able to act swiftly and cease distribution of the product to Canadian salons. Their own tests revealed even higher levels of formaldehyde, at 12 percent.

Women’s Voices for the Earth, the National Healthy Salon Alliance and others have criticized the United States’ system for being ineffective in monitoring the safety of cosmetic products. Under current law, the FDA can’t require cosmetics companies to conduct safety tests, or even require product recalls. As a result, the marketplace is flooded with products that contain toxic chemicals. Workers and consumers are forced to rely on industry to self-police, which has not been effective enough. It is unknown at this time whether the Brazilian Blowout products will be recalled.

“Toxic beauty products have long jeopardized the health of salon workers,” says Anuja Mendiratta of the National Healthy Salon Alliance and the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative. “We regularly hear stories from women who are exposed to an unimaginable number of chemicals in their workplace and suffer a range of serious health impacts. I hope this is a wake-up call that something seriously wrong with our regulatory system, and we need to fix it at the federal level to assure worker and consumer health and safety.”

For the first time in 70 years, Congress is set to vote on the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010, which would close the loopholes in the outdated federal law that allows chemicals to cause serious health impacts to salon workers and consumers.

The cost of the Brazilian Blowout treatment varies between $150 and $600. The Brazilian Blowout Solution and Acai Professional Smoothing Solution are just two products offered by the California company, and the only ones tested by OHSU. It is unknown whether other products, such as the Brazilian Blowout shampoo, conditioner and masque contain formaldehyde.

What do you think? Is it worth it to have smooth hair, if you're exposed to a carcinogen? Vote here!

What's that Smell? Time to raise a stink on fragrance chemicals

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:26:00 +0000

You know you love it. Pulling that laundry fresh out of the dryer, so white and fluffy! You take a slow, deep whiff. Mmmmm, the intoxicating scent of fresh laundry!

Sounds like a commercial you've seen before, huh? According to the commercials put out by cleaning product companies, you'd think women are addicted to doing laundry. Fortunately, I'm not. I'm lucky if I even get the pleasure of clean clothes out of a load, as the machine's contents are often dominated by my bike commuting husband's clothes and those of my drooling, messy-faced toddler.

I, like so many American women, value cleanliness and the health of my family. That's why I've been using fragrance-free laundry detergent ever since I gave birth to my son. A nasty outbreak of eczema has converted my once-cavalier buying habits to being a bit of an eco-freak.

Now, a new report by Women's Voices for the Earth has drawn together many more convincing pieces of evidence that unregulated fragrance chemicals are not only ending up in our bodies, but they could be causing a host of serious health problems, including asthma and allergies among kids, increased risk of breast cancer and even some birth defects. It's all here in their report "What's that Smell."

Some tips from the report:

Don't always trust 'unscented.' Some companies add fragrances just so a product won't smell like chemicals. Look for 'fragrance free' instead.
Fabric softeners, air fresheners and laundry detergents have the highest levels of synthetic musks, which may be harmful to your health. If you're looking to phase out fragrances, start there.
Fresh air can do wonders! Open up a window in your car, home and office more often to get the smell out, rather than just cover it up.
Avoid fragranced products if you are pregnant, looking to get pregnant, or breastfeeding.

Do you use fragranced cleaning products? If not, why not? Do you have trouble walking down the cleaning product aisle in the store? If so, let me know!

Paper or Plastic?

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 20:27:00 +0000

Which is better: paper or plastic? We all know that the best choice is BYOB--bring your own bag. But let's face it. Sometimes we forget our bags. Or sometimes you go out to get groceries and come back with more than expected--and you had to supplement with disposable bags. Or sometimes your husband goes out to get groceries and rather than nagging him on one more thing--"Don't forget the bags!!" you'd rather just sit on the floor and play with your toddler in the sun. Not speaking from experience or anything. With California contemplating a plastic bag ban, the alternative becomes paper. Is this the wisest choice? Well, it's a complicated issue. I've listed the cons for each below because well, both are cons but the question is which con is worse.

Plastic Cons

Plastic bags threaten wildlife along the coasts, so if that's where you live, this is a major con.

It takes 12 million barrels of oil per year to produce plastic bags

Plastic bags don't hold as much stuff as paper so you inevitably end up with more of them.

Plastic bag manufacturers have the chemical industry behind them, and these guys are just evil.

Paper Cons

Paper bags come from lots and lots of trees--when logging is done unsustainably it can have a huge impact on the whole ecosystem

It takes about 14 million trees per year to produce paper bags

The production of paper bags creates 70 percent more air pollution than plastic

According to a life cycle analysis by Franklin Associates, Ltd., for 10,000 uses, plastic creates 9.1 cubic pounds of solid waste vs. 45.8 cubic pounds for paper.

So what's my verdict? Paper is no better than plastic, even though paper seems to be the choice of greener outfits like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. Any city or state ordinance seeking to limit the use of disposable bags should do the right thing and ban or tax both. If you do accumulate bags, reuse and recycle. Here are some inventive ways to do just that:

Plastic:
Trash can liners! My favorite.
Lunch bags
Cooking "gloves" to protect your hands when slicing peppers and stuff
Make a reusable bag out of plastic!

Paper:
Bacon grease mat(compost afterwards)
Cooling rack for cookies--it absorbs some of the grease, making them slightly healthier for you
Broken glass protector--if you break a glass, put it in a paper bag before throwing away to protect everything else in your trash can
Cat fort--cut a hole at one end and let the hilarity ensue
Textbook covers
Covering up illegal drinks in public places (didn't hear it from me!)

And, here's one of my favorite patterns for a reusable tote--the handles are long enough to fit over your shoulder. I also recommend sewing a cute broadcloth cotton to the plain canvas base, to give it a bit more personality. These make great gifts!

And check out this video from Newsy--a good synopsis of the issue:

pp

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

A better place for e-waste

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:56:00 +0000

Ever since I worked on a cell phone recycling campaign a while back (this was before I even had a cell phone!) I've always been conscious of where my electronic waste goes. I've passed on working cell phone to others when I was ready for an upgrade, and taken old computers to e-waste recycling centers (and footed the bill for it too). I even let an old TV sit in the basement forever, rather than putting it on the curb, until I finally got off my lazy butt to recycle it.

But even then I had no idea of the toll that e-waste is taking on the developing world, particularly "digital dumping grounds" in China and Africa. Think about it: nowadays people start thinking their computer is "old" after just two years, and cell phone companies urge you to upgrade to the newest gadget after only six months. A huge amount of effort from the plastics, metals and chemical industry goes into each of those disposable electronics. And the waste builds up year after year.

My work recently brought me into a project with the Basel Action Network, which is a lead watchdog organization, and lead compelling investigations with 60 Minutes and Frontline, uncovering these horrific digital dumps. They've started a program called e-Stewards, which gives consumers an easy way to choose responsible recyclers over unscrupulous dumpers. And, as an added bonus, high tech e-waste recycling facilities in the U.S. means more green collar jobs.

So this Earth Day, if you're looking to get rid of some of your e-waste, take a look at this map to see if there's an e-Stewards recycler near you, and go to them! If you don't have an e-Stewards recycler near you, ask them to become one. Don't you think your trusty old computer or cell phone deserves to go to a better place?

Here's some coverage of the recently-launched program:

USA Today
New York Times
GreenBiz.com

e-Stewardship from Basel Action Network on Vimeo.

My take on the 'Bodies' Exhibit

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:05:00 +0000

The Bodies Exhibit...It's back! As people flock to this popular exhibit again, I thought I'd republish an article I wrote when the exhibit debuted in Seattle, back in December, 2006.

Bodies: "Edu-tainment" for the masses

As I mingled with the huge crowds of people to see the “Bodies” exhibit at 800 Pike St. in Seattle after Thanksgiving, I was struck by the sheer spectacle of the event. Statuesque Asian faces stand with their muscles flayed, their skin torn off and eyebrows and nipples adhered to their wrinkled flesh, while mostly tourists jostle each other to catch a closer glimpse, push their children forward, and whisper to their friends “that’s creepy.” The bodies are not encased behind glass, nor are they particularly elevated above the floor. So exhibit visitors are able to literally stare into the face of death.

The bodies at the Seattle “Bodies” exhibit are being leased to Premiere Exhibitions from a medical school in Dalian, a city in Northeast China. The money Premiere pays the medical school for preserving the bodies goes back into the school, and Premiere will give the bodies back to Dalian after the exhibit, although that date is ambiguous right now. If the exhibit is successful enough, “Bodies” may keep showing for months past its slated Dec. 31 closing date. (If attendance keeps up at the rate of about 2,500 people per weekend day, and reaches an expected 40,000 people for its total run in Seattle, the outlook looks good.)

The bodies are preserved in a unique “polymer preservation” technique that fills tissue spaces with a liquid silicone rubber that hardens, resulting in a rubberized human body specimen. The main thrust of the exhibit is education — feeding little tidbits about human biology to patrons throughout, and showing what happens to a smoker’s lungs when exposed to the ravages of cigarette smoke.

Of the nine galleries, there is a blood vessel room, where polymerized vessels and arteries float in large cases of water, lit up like neon coral and lava lamps. There are rooms showcasing the human brain, the respiratory system, and muscular development. In the fetus room, where a sign warns of the gallery ahead and offers a courteous alternate exit if exhibit goers wish to forego the room, fetuses from four weeks to five months float in transparent cylinders filled with water and enclosed in glass incubator-like cases.

The sensitivity of displaying fetuses and dead bodies has, as expected, angered the Christian pro-life community. But it has also angered the Chinese American community. Exhibit representatives say they obtained the bodies from China because “China has the best body preservers in the world.” (Although Chinese medical schools and doctors did perform the polymer preservation process, the man who invented the technique, Dr. Gunther von Hagens, is German.) While some believe that these bodies were obtained illegally, there is no evidence of that. But we do know that these people were simply “unclaimed” bodies at the morgue that died of undisclosed reasons. When bodies are unclaimed, the Chinese government has a policy that they can be donated for scientific research.

Moral ambiguities aside, the show is immensely popular around the country. It is obvious that when the bodies were preserved, the entertainment of exhibition goers was kept in mind, with the corpses posed in positions playing tennis or basketball, or with their arm raised to conduct an imaginary orchestra. While I was skeptical that medical schools should be in the business of providing “entertaining” displays of human bodies, Dr. Roy Glover, medical director of the “Bodies” exhibit, assured me that it was perfectly legal for medical schools to make money this way, as long as clients like Premiere have a mission of scientific education. His former lab at the University of Michigan is also in the body business, but they have never created an exhibit on the scale of “Bodies.”

Traditional Chinese burial rituals are some of the most sensitive arguments that Chinese Americans have made. All the Chinese funeral rites — the food offerings, the burning of spirit money, the music to accompany the movement of the corpse to the burial site, and burial of the body — were not conducted since these people didn’t have any family. So no one knows where their souls went — perhaps wandering around the exhibition halls? Or worse, if these people did have families who somehow didn’t know of their deaths, the bodies could become “hungry ghosts” and bring wrath to one’s ancestors as retribution for failing to observe ritual obligations. And that is a very unsettling fact for some more traditional Chinese people.

Because the presence of family is so important around the time of one’s death in China, that’s led some people to believe that unclaimed bodies belong to the poor, indigent, perhaps migrant worker class. “These people were likely to have been poor and disenfranchised, so they had no way to give consent to what would happen to their bodies after they died,” says John Lloyd, a graduate student in Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington. “Underneath the glitz and glam of modern Chinese cities, there’s still a very traditional China. I can guarantee that if you were to ask that person if he wanted to be posed playing tennis forever in a worldwide tour, he would’ve said no. For that reason, I’m not going to the exhibit.”

Indeed, because consent forms were not obtained, some people have raised moral objections to viewing the bodies, which makes one wonder, “Is this education or exploitation?” The people at the exhibit aren’t really interested in having that conversation — in fact it was a bit difficult to get anyone at the exhibit to answer my questions. A precious few employees are even qualified to speak with the media, and when they do, only on very specific subject matter. But it’s a conversation worth having as a community, not just as Asian Americans, but as a human community: Is it right to view dead bodies when those people did not explicitly consent to do so?

While the educational mission of ‘Bodies’ is a valid one, it is impossible to truly ascertain every person’s motivations for seeing the exhibit, and there is no guarantee that anyone is learning anything from the display of dead bodies. But because “Bodies” is about science rather than art, it allows itself to be in the advantageous position of profiting from what is perhaps the most well attended, successful scientific education exhibit this city has ever seen. There’s no great mystery to its success — people want to see dead bodies on display, some because it’s educational, and some despite the fact that it is.

Help heal the seas—starting with your own plate

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:10:00 +0000

Following is a reprint of an article I wrote for the International Examiner on Nov. 4, 2009
You can find the original article here:
http://www.iexaminer.org/news/features/sustainable-seafood/

Unagi, uni, abalone, sea cucumber, chilled jellyfish, the list goes on. Asian cuisine features some of the most diverse (some may say strange) seafood on its menus. Yes, serve me the whole fish, and fry those spot prawn heads for later! Yet, how many times have you bitten into that piece of tuna sashimi, with a twinge of guilt?

“Where did this fish come from? Are all those headlines about the oceans in crisis really true?”

Convenience and just plain hunger urge us to finish our meal despite the internal guilt trip, but making seafood sustainable remains a complex and urgent issue that looms like a cloud over our future—and our dinner plates. Between 1950 and 1994, ocean fishermen increased their catch 400 percent by doubling the number of boats and using more effective fishing gear. Worldwide, fisheries throw away about 25 percent of what they catch as bycatch, including dolphins, sea turtles and seals. Will our oceans be able to stand up to the enormous pressures we have put on them? Will our insatiable appetite for seafood ever wane?

To play our part means learning more about where our seafood comes from, how it was caught or raised, and learning the difference between “good seafood” and “bad seafood.” The Monterey Bay Aquarium puts out a Seafood Watch Pocket Guide (including a sushi version) which lists various kinds of seafood, and tells you which to avoid, which are good alternatives, and which are best choices.

“We’re now working with large food service organizations, who want to work within our guidelines—consumer demand is behind that,” says Alison Barratt of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. “Ideally we wouldn’t need a pocket guide because everything would be certified with a label, but until that happens, we’re going to keep asking these questions.”

The Marine Stewardship Council’s rigorous third party certification program evaluates fisheries on their sustainability and environmental impacts. “There is market incentive for fisheries to enter the voluntary certification program and carry the MSC ecolabel, especially given the surge in major retail, food service and other global seafood businesses making a commitment to source MSC-certified seafood,” says Kerry Coughlin in the MSC’s Seattle regional office.

Here are some tips on how to make a difference in our oceans:

1. Ask restaurants where seafood comes from, and keep asking if you don’t get an answer. The more people ask where the seafood comes from, the more likely they’ll want to come back with a good answer.

2. The smaller the fish, the better. Smaller fish are lower on the food chain, have fewer contaminants and are quicker to reproduce. Instead of making a tuna sandwich, try mackerel, sardines or herring.

3. Make your seafood at home—you’ll have a better idea of where it came from, whether it be at local seafood markets, or straight from the docks.

4. Pick up the check. You can do the ordering, and make the most sustainable choices.

5. If you really can’t resist the bad stuff, make a donation to an ocean conservation group. Consider it like buying “ocean credits.” Some local groups are: Seadoc Society, People for Puget Sound, Northwest Straits Commission.

6. Support the long-term solution: Marine Protected Areas are underwater parks that give the ocean’s fisheries a chance to recover, and repopulate the seas. Efforts are underway right now to implement them in California and Oregon.

Some to Avoid (and there are others):

• Bluefin tuna—it’s severely overfished, and has high mercury levels. Sea turtles, sharks and seabirds all get entangled due to catching bluefin.

• Yellowtail (or hamachi)—Their facilities spread disease and pollution, and rely heavily on using wild fish for feed.

• Freshwater eel (or unagi)—Juveniles are taken from the wild and then farm-raised, putting pressure on wild populations. About 90 percent of eel sold in the U.S. is farmed.

• Shark fin soup—A third of open ocean sharks are now threatened with extinction. As top predators, they serve an important function in balancing out complex marine ecosystems.

•Farmed salmon—Farming salmon spreads diseases and parasites to wild salmon, which are threatened.

Learn more about Seafood Watch at http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx. Research which fisheries are certified at www.msc.org.

Thanks to the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Ocean Conservancy for serving as sources for this article.

Lingcod tempura with kiwi cucumber salsa

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:48:00 +0000

This weekend we had a burst of activity--we ventured out to the International District on foot, taking public transportation, with our 8.5 month old. Since Max decided to take an impromptu nap in the carrier, we had some time to kill--hey, if a baby gives you half an hour of leisure time, you take it, even if it does mean hauling around his 18 pound body on your torso.

The lingcod from Alaska at Uwajimaya looked especially fresh, and I remember it getting a pretty good rating on the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch. (I have been known to eat shark fin soup, but I've since turned over a new leaf!) I thought it'd go well with some sort of fruity sauce, so we picked up some kiwis too. When we got home, we debated how we should make it--grilled? steamed? sauteed? Something that would keep in the moist juiciness without overdrying.

"I know, how about you do a tempura?" my husband asked. I responded with a shudder. Anyone who's ever done it knows that making tempura is very laborious and a big pain, especially with a baby still awake and curious to know everything that mommy is doing. But, I agreed that it would be damn delicious and we should break out the old Japanese cookbook and do it.

When you're making tempura, your technique can't be like you're just frying anything. It's essential to keep those little fluffy pillows of flour crisp and open in the end--otherwise you just get very plain fishsticks. So set everything up in advance, work very quickly and don't let your batter sit around!

Here's my recipe:
1 cup flour
1 cup ice water
1 egg yolk
A little salt

Once you have all your fish pieces cut and de-boned, set aside a cup of ice water, and let it chill. Meanwhile, clean your pan, lay out some paper towels and heat about 2 inches of light oil. (Don't use olive oil--it burns at high heat.) Separate your egg yolk, and mix with your ice water. Dump in your flour all at once, and here's the hard part--run a chopstick through to mix exactly once--no more. Add in a little salt.

Dip your fish in the batter quickly and gently lay into the oil. It should be hot enough so that it sizzles. Keep working in your pieces but don't over crowd your pan. Ideally you should only flip them once to avoid handling them too much. So flip after a minute or so, or when one side is light brown. When they're light brown all over, transfer to paper towels. Shake on some shichimi togarashi, a mixture of pepper, orange peel, sesame, seaweed and ginger. Yum!

For the salsa, combine 2 diced kiwis, 1/2 diced cucumber, chopped jalapenos (to taste) some salt and about 1 tbsp rice vinegar.

Bacon fried rice!

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:16:00 +0000

After spending a week with a couple of weeks with some pretty hard core vegan and vegetarian friends, I ended up with some leftover bacon after a particularly enthusiastic (not matched by said veg-heads) bacon breakfast. No problem, I thought, I'll just have it over white rice for a delicious carby, greasy snack!

After relaying this story to my sister we came up with a great recipe for bacon fried rice, influenced by her Hawaiian friend. Here it is!

Ingredients:
1 cup white rice
6 strips bacon, or as you like it
1/2 sweet white onion
1/4 cup soy sauce
6 tsp. sugar
1 can pineapple tidbits

If you don't have old white rice from last night's dinner, you can make a fresh batch. Cooking it in a rice cooker ensures optimal moisture balance--you don't want soggy rice.

Cut your strips of bacon into little pieces and put into your frying pan or wok. Let the grease melt into the pan a little bit. Put in diced onion and fry until soft.

Meanwhile, heat soy sauce on a little sauce pan, add sugar and stir until it's dissolved. Turn off and set aside.

Put your rice into the wok with bacon and onion and smush around with your spatula to break it up. When the rice is well-coated with bacon grease, add in the soy sauce mixture slowly, and stir until well mixed. Lastly, add your pineapple and cook until the bits are heated through.

You can also add scallions or cilantro at the end if you want some greenery.

And it's done! Greasy lips are happy lips.

Born to roll: spring roll eating competition

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:44:00 +0000

I recently partook in a spring roll eating competition for the Seattle Chinatown/International District Preservation and Development Association. Or, affectionately, SCID/PDA. Honestly I got roped into it at the last minute and I partly wanted to just represent women on the eating stage, as well as the International Examiner.

Let me just say...competitive eaters have skill. It is seriously hard to shove spring rolls, with crispy fried wrappers down your gullet un-chewed. I at least thought I had a leg up on Dino Rossi because he confessed to me in the green room that he hated cabbage. But alas, he beat me by 2. But at least he has some gas as a result of the competition. I comfortably made the rounds and topped off on chicken wings and fried rice.

Here's a pic of me with the rest of the competitors, Dow Constantine, King County Councilman (and running for King County Exec.) famed controversial "GOP" gubernatorial candidate, Paul Costant, books editor at The Stranger, Toby Crittenden of Washington Bus, Brock Huard, former Husky and Seahawk, James Sun, former contestant on The Apprentice and Uncle Bob Santos, "Mayor of the ID" (not pictured). Here's The Stranger's Paul Costant crowing on his victory.

And the video

Bento Mania

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:43:00 +0000

Check out these amazing bento creations on Flickr! I've never had the time or patience to construct miniature Pokemons or or Cooking Mamas out of egg omelettes, rice, nori and spam, but if you ever feel inclined, this is a great gallery to get some ideas!

Also, I recently had a discussion with a bunch of friends on their favorite ways to eat spam, and I was awed by the diversity of this meat! (By the way, did you know that the name spam comes from 'spiced ham'?) So, if you have any spam recipes you'd like to contribute, please let me know! I'm doing an informal collection.

Crocheted breasts--diverse inspiration!

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:28:00 +0000

Well, I've kept this news from you, but I'm currently 8 months pregnant! No, it wasn't a surprise, I've just been procrastinating on bringing in craftiness and cooking into the preggo theme. But, I recently gave my friend a crocheted mammary for her shower, and then started producing them for mass production for the art vending machine at The Hideout. They come in all sorts of colors and shapes, to represent the diversity of motherhood that gives food to us all. They can also be used as a comfy stand-in for those who have had a masectomy. Enjoy these pics of a decidedly medium tone. Amigurumi technique all the way. Please contact me if you'd like the pattern.

Everybody say MOO!

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:40:00 +0000

I was so excited to receive my new customized mini MOO business cards in the mail yesterday. You can choose from a number of cool graphic designers, who give you a number of different images in each pack! Or, upload your own design. And, at about $20 for 100 top-quality cards, the price is just as attractive as the work of their independent artists. This fish is from Kam Tan.

I plan on inserting mine into my crafty concoctions I've been selling in an art vending machine at our favorite hang out bar, The Hideout. That way people can bug me to make them more crocheted bacon and the like. I love them so much, my hubbie literally had to pry them out of my hand at night before going to bed.

Pick up a pack (and support the U.K. economy in protest of our own U.S. corrupt financial world...did I really just say that?) at www.moo.com

Rainbow mango noodle salad

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:54:00 +0000

This has become my favorite summer salad--it's super easy, and leaves you with that delightfully satisfied but not over-gorged feeling afterwards. Plus, it has almost all the colors in the rainbow, making it a crowd pleaser!

Serves: 6

Ingredients
Salad:
1/2 package fresh miki egg noodles (udon or rice noodles would work fine too)
1 large or 2 small ripe mangoes
2 red radishes, skin left on
1 carrot, peeled and julienned or scraped
A handful of cilantro
One quarter head of red cabbage
1 cup matchsticked cucumber
Approx. 2 cups deep fried tofu (you can get this in the tofu section of most Asian food stores)
1/3 cup unsalted roasted peanuts, smashed

Dressing:
1/4 cup Tiparos fish sauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup (scant) of brown sugar
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
Juice of half a lime
Chili oil to taste

Cook noodles until they are al dente, just a few minutes, strain and run cold water over them to cool them down. Finely chop all your ingredients, with mangoes cut into strips.

Dressing: mix together fish sauce and brown sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add oils and juice of lime and mix well until combined. If serving later, pour half the mixture over your ingredients and add the rest of your dressing later. If serving immediately, pour on all of your dressing. Top with peanuts last.

Jokes in the month of April

noreply@blogger.com (sianwu) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:20:00 +0000

I'll let you judge whether this is a true "craft" or not, but I started a joke book in this cute little Yoshitomo Nara journal I got at MoMA last year (the Japanese artist who makes those delightfully evil but cute drawings and sculptures). Most of my jokes are nasty or offensive, but some are kid-friendly. A joke book is a great way to meet new people too. Pass around a journal at a party and have people write in their favorite, then read them aloud and guffaw inappropriately. Here's one that I recently received over email that I enjoyed:

On a chain of beautiful deserted islands in the middle of South Pacific, the following people are stranded:

Two Italian men and one Italian woman.

Two French men and one French woman.

Two German men and one German woman.

Two Greek men and one Greek woman.

Two British men and one British woman.

Two Bulgarian men and one Bulgarian woman.

Two Japanese men and one Japanese woman.

Two Chinese men and one Chinese woman.

Two Irish men and one Irish woman.

Two American men and one American woman.

One month later, on these absolutely stunning deserted islands in the middle of nowhere, the following things have occurred:

One Italian man killed the other Italian man for the Italian woman.

The two French men and the French woman are living happily together in a ménage à trois.

The two German men have a strict weekly schedule of alternating visits with the German woman.

The two Greek men are sleeping together and the Greek woman is cooking and cleaning for them.

The two British men are waiting for someone to introduce them to the British woman.

The two Bulgarian men took one look at the Bulgarian woman and started swimming to another island.

The two Japanese have faxed Tokyo and are awaiting instructions.

The two Chinese men have set up a pharmacy, liquor store, restaurant, and laundry, and have gotten the woman pregnant in order to supply more employees for their stores.

The two Irish men divided the island into north and south and set up a distillery. They do not remember if sex is in the picture because it gets somewhat foggy after a few pints of coconut whisky. However, they're satisfied because the British aren't having any fun..

The two American men are contemplating suicide, because the American woman will not shut up and complains relentlessly about her body, the true nature of feminism, what the sun is doing to her skin, how she can do anything they can do, the necessity of fulfilment, the equal division of household chores, how sand and palm trees make her look fat, how her last boyfriend respected her opinion and treated her nicer than they do, and how her relationship with her mother is the root cause of all her problems, and why didn't they bring a damn cell phone so they could call 911 and get them all rescued off this forsaken deserted island in the middle of freaking nowhere so she can get her nails done and go shopping