May 15 (Sa), 2021 Old stories, new challenges!

Old stories, new challenges!

May 13 (Th), 2021 Breaking News! No complacency!

May 13 (Th), 2021 Breaking News!

The worst nightmare could happen in Taiwan (in addition to a big neighboring country's constant military threats)!

20 more, newly virus-infected cases were identified through traveler's flights. The whole of Taiwan is on high alert!

The infected cases jumped from 907 early in January 2021 to today 1257 (each case was identified, digitized, and filed for the individual medical interventions/treatments since the first case occurred in February 2020).

A massive scale of contact tracking, tracing, quarantines, and treatments have been underway. Community contagions are the top concerns of residents! A couple of cities were locked down. Traveling to India and Indonesia was strictly regulated.
People support the government's new containment protocols.



黃樓夢
Wall Street Journal: Regarding the increasing infected cases in the world largest semiconductor manufacturing country - Taiwan :
https://www.wsj.com/.../covid-19-concerns-and-chip...


WSJ.COM
Covid-19 Concerns and Chip Selloff Roil Taiwanese MarketCovid-19 Concerns and Chip Selloff Roil Taiwanese Market

黃樓夢
A previous post on June 11, 2020
Different styles in combating the pandemics.

黃樓夢
I am sandwiched between the opposite styles' ends of a spectrum...

黃樓夢
https://www.facebook.com/.../a.1015123.../10158307943596270/

May 9 (Sn), 2021 What a tinderbox!

           

May 9 (Sn), 2021. What a tinderbox!
- a lived experience of living, thriving, and flourishing through a Tinderbox



The texts of the above poster were attached below.


If needed,
she is still able to carry weapons
to protect her community,
even in the later stage of her life.
(note, she, currently, a retired captain.)

Ideology,
preference,  
if you have a choice:
an Authoritarian/Totalitarian-Communism,
depriving its people’s
basic human rights,
abusing animal, and the
Earth rights,
or a Democratic
thrive?

Why,
power
an insatiable object?

The original Marx’s idealism was hijacked in the name of
social justice.
After its regime was established,
like in the Animal Farm,
some pigs being more equal than that of others.
The politburo’s
wealth,
privilege, and
status composite is
the new dominant class.
By controlling its people’s stomachs to live like human bees-n-ants indoctrinated with notions that giving up basic human rights is
patriotic.

The democratic trajectory is anything but like a bridge -

above troubled water.

The civil war (1927- 49),
not like the US.’ style (1861-65)
there, leaders and people devoted their lives for the basic human freedom,
though herding the cats is challenging.
Whereas the other,
purging dissidents,
spying people,

brainwashing them
through a frenzy nationalism of
a new religion

propagandizes democracy
not working for the masses
through a whole dimensional surveillance
- disciplining the dogs is as easy as a piece of cake.

The international community swaying through the ambiguous
Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895),
Potsdam Proclamation (1945),
the post-war San Francisco Peace Treaty (1952), and Treaty of Taipei (1952),
each leaves uncertainty and hardship for Taiwan’s endless struggles for being herself.

The tapir-super-capitalism camouflaged under fascist authoritarianism is
effective and efficient to
control humans
into hyperbolic obedience.

Accelerating climate change, animal abuses,
taking away basic human rights,
this country is flourishing into a bully.
Shout it loud, “The stomach is full; freedom is evil!
Totalitarianism is my parents, 
and Democracy does not work!!”
Indeed, how proud of its Hitlerian Nationalism. 
A country shows off its successful despotism.  

A regime never rules one day over another “country,” while insisting on its sovereignty.
Why not unify the land which is 22 times bigger than Taiwan, given to Russia ingratiatingly,
or,
reclaim Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and the rest of historical lands as parts of its territory?

The Military threats and intimidations, yes, are always on its plate to maraud regional territories.
The best is to invade without visible weaponry,
through the Unrestricted Warfare Strategies to avoid the international community’s stare?
Females, sex, double-faced tactics, the smiling tiger’s bribery, selling Confucius’ ideologies and the rest are booming between Taiwan straits, and in the global trades.
Who can resist the seduction of the sex, money through the human-waves
stuffed in the Trojan-Horses?

Some geopolitical strategists remark, “Who wins Taiwan, who owns the world.” Why?

Who is drooling in Taiwan’s highest level
of the semi-conductor productivity? Or, the world most UNIQUE country challenges the most brilliant international law scholars to untangle the mess of the unprecedented legacy since the 1950s by renowned global leaders?
For "out of sight, out of mind,“ what else can they do about the predicaments that
Taiwanese people unduly endure?

But, most importantly, the hard-working, generous, and hospital people, stand strong,
through wave by wave of psycho-economic-military marauding, intimidations, and threads from a bullying neighbor nation. 
 

Yet, if Taiwan wants to win for herself, the self-determination plays the key role.
There are people from China in Taiwan, preferring a big, strong country,
yet, hesitating to move there.
There are fence-riders, looking for a big tree to enjoy its shade and firewood. 
There are brainwashed older generations before the Martial Law being lifted,
know little about Taiwan’s history,
nor the power of brain control by Taiwan’s China/CCP-mainlanders. 



There are growing independent thinkers in the younger generations,
who gradually see through what happens in Hong Kong, Xingjian,
and the unfree people under CCP’s tight control.

 They want to be HUMANS.

Be strong, be tenacious!
It is not the BIG enemy destroying a society,
but the strongest castle is brought down by the internal chaos, egocentrism, and division!  



Who says that giving up liberty for security,
gets none?

Or, kindly wishing people in CCP/China,
one day,
luckily enough,
are granted the rights
to think and talk, like humans
after the stomachs are fed.



So, the international communities, witnessing Taiwan’s thriving for democracy
as a de facto nation,
yet, hesitatingly, reluctantly recognizes her efforts in building a model nation.

Let her be David fighting against Goliath for the asymmetrical warfare, and
she needs to Declare the new name: RTTGSA -
Republic of Taiwan Through the Global Strategic Ambiguity.

May 6 (Th), 2021 A bird's story

Happy Mother's Day to all sentient beings.




A bunch of fathers-could-be dance and sing with all their hearts out.
My mother-to-be enjoys staring at each one of them with genetically programmed keen eyes.
They obey the Almighty’s command, and one is chosen by my soon-to-be-mom.

She finds an area with thick and tough branches.
Then, day by day, week by week,
she picks feathers, straws, leaves, tiny twigs, tendrils, cotton, and cat hairs
glued with her saliva.
“My species do not practice monogamy.
So, being a single mom is pre-determined,” thinking of these,
my mother with her beak and claws,
continues her non-stop weaving a safe nest for her babies to come.

Then,
a roaring thunderstorm ignores my mother-to-be’s efforts
destroying her half-done nest.
“There is no house insurance policy to protect my home,”
she murmurs to herself and works again.
After another day and week, her mouth is dryed out, and the nest is done.

She searches for food,
worms by worms,
insects by insects,
and morning dews by morning dews.
As a single-mom-to be,
she is always on high alert to guard against those avivores:
seagulls, falcons, chicken hawks, for her body, is getting clumsy and round,
so as snakes, lizards, big frogs, cats, monkeys, and the fox.
She needs to stuff her stomach for the little things growing inside her abdomen.

Day by day, and week by week,
she nurtures the new lives by her maternal Will to bring eggs to continue the family bond.
Gradually, my mother pushes us out.
One by one, now, I have 4 sibling eggs.
Inside the shell, with mother’s hope,
we patiently await to meet our mother silhouetted amid the sunshine.

One day, when my mother goes out for searching food,
a snake
crawls up to our nest.
It grabs one of my sibling eggs, and one falls onto the ground.
My mother comes back, wrenching her heart with flooding tears for the missing
and the smashed ones.
“Why couldn’t I afford a nanny or babysitter to watch over my babies while working outside,” she weeps with swollen eyes.

Now she is more vigilant,
hatching us patiently with her body warm and love.

The wild rains and pours hit our home.
Raindrops bounce on my mother's back and wings,
She stays firm and calm
on us eggs to keep the right temperature for us to transform.

Happily, one by one, says, “Hello, world!”
I am the first one to greet my mom.
She caresses me through her beak with tender touches,
and then I get more attention and care.

Us 3 BIG yellow mouths are always wide-open,
driving my mother searching mice, insects, and worms back and forth, back and forth...
We know she is tired and hungry, but we never see her eat or rest.
She just keeps on stuffing food from her mouth into each big yellow tube,
and I am always the one nurtured with more food while my siblings are not so robust as I am.

Week by week, we are getting bigger and bigger,
while our space
becomes smaller and smaller.
My mother is still busy like the bumblebee,
feeding us as many times as she can.
She looks thinner and tinier and tired
but with a super high spirit to catch insects more often.

On a horrible day,
a chicken hawk
swooping down attacks our nest.
My mother, with her wings stretching out as far as possible
and fluttering as fast as she can,
uses her last strength without the self-defense guns or weapons
to counter-attack the enemy.
My mother’s head is injured, and
my brother is lost.

Here comes the nightmare,
a couple of human kids playing with BB guns.
While my mother is not at home,
my sister’s chirping voices with hunger catch their attention.

“Bang! Bang!”
The killing sounds come from the children’s 2nd Amendment!
The bullets pierce into my sister’s wings and heart.
Leave me by myself,
sobbing
in
icy silence.

Now, my mother holding me tight,
with tears in her eyes,
says,
“ What else do I have, if you don’t grow up
– as fast as you must?”

May 6 (Th), 2021 The implicated Privilege and Stigma

Topic:
the Implicated privilege and stigma

Mary double-checked the competencies and the rest of the course components of the coming unit of her Introduction to Diversity Studies online class. This semester, she had two sociology sections (one face-to face-and one online), three diversity studies (one face-to-face, one blended, and one online), and one Contemporary American Society (fac-to-face).

Colleagues in similar academic fields to Mary’s tended to express a preference: not to be assigned for facilitating Diversity Studies and Contemporary American Society courses on their teaching-preference sheets. As for Mary, usually, she did not express a preference.  Being an active union member, after Act 10, Mary could smell a vague silence and passivity lingering around campuses. To be more viable as the only minority faculty in this college, she tried to be as accommodating as best as she could.

Why did Mary check Competencies first? That was the kick in the tech college teaching environment. Competency-based learning is emphasized in many tech colleges. They are required by the educational policies of the State. It is a framework for teaching and assessment of learning, which is also described as a type of education focusing on outcomes and real-world performance. Based on the objectives, Mary designed course contents, learning activities, and assessments aligned with each competency.

For this unit, the competencies were “Assess how power and privilege impact individuals and groups,” and “Examine the impact of biases and behaviors on relationships (personal and group).

Mary checked again all the grammar, spellings, lecture notes, PowerPoint, worksheets/assignments, and guidelines of each hands-on project. Viola, “Well done,” she, patted on her own back.

Some homework started appearing in the assignment area of the Learning Management System which was changed from BlackBoard,  Edvance360, to current Canvas.  Mary read each student’s submission carefully and returned with a grade and feedback as timely and effective as possible.  Recalling when Mary was a student, anxious about how well she was doing on the homework, and what the score was, were the main concerns during those days. For this quick-feedback to students’ assignments earned for Mary's high evaluation and praises from learners in the online learning environment.

 As usual, some assignments were completed in a hurry; some were based on “the least effort principles.”  The rest were part of the teaching-n-learning Routine Tasks. “The best, yet to come…,” Mary patiently waited for the most rewarding moment to happen. In every class, there was always, approximately, 10 to 15% of students’ work that brought forth great joy to Mary. That was the most exciting moment to be an educator.

Then, suddenly, Ryan’s assignment showed up. That was what Mary called a “joyously exciting moment.” Ryan was a very good student, turning in homework on time, and completing each worksheet gingerly. So far, he was in the A grade level. Mary could not wait to read his assignment.

Mary eagerly opened his worksheet. Then, “what was going on?” Mary was shocked.  Ryan typed with all capped big font size with bolded sentences all over his worksheet,
“WHAT PRIVILEGE”? JUST BECAUSE I AM A WHITE MALE?”
“THIS ASSIGNMENT IS FILLED WITH NONSENSE! LIST THE TOP FIVE PRIVILEGES AND STIGMAS THAT I POSSESS? LET ME TELL YOU, I DON’T HAVE ANY PRIVILEGE. I WORK 2 PART-TIME JOBS, AND LIVE IN THE TRAILER PARK! ”

Seemingly, shouting at Mary, Ryan continued, “WELL, STIGMAS, YES, I HAVE A BUNCH:  A POOR GUY, RAISED BY A SINGLE MOM, NO HEALTH INSURANCE, NO STABLE JOBS, LIVING IN AN UNDESIRABLE CONDITION… WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?”

“Wow, what a genuine writing…” Mary murmured to herself, “at least, Ryan did express his deep concerns. Though he was unhappy about this assignment, he did not submit a get-by, perfunctory homework.”  You know, once in a while, some students in order to get the 3 required credits without “troubles”, write something to fit teachers’ basic “expectation” or “taste” to avoid any ramifications.

“Well, how do I write a feedback to him…,” Mary started thinking of questions that Ryan raised entangled with many socio-economic issues, such as the socialization process and agents, cultural capital, life chances, social class, social mobility within capitalism and so on so forth, not just race, ethnicity, gender etc. which were the main themes of this Diversity Studies course.

Usually, Diversity Studies is the upper level of course in the 4-year college, listed under the Department of Sociology.  It is an interdisciplinary course that requires the knowledge of sociology with some basic economics, and political sciences understanding. In the two-year tech college setting, there is no prerequisite for this type of upper-level of courses. For this unique condition, Mary tended to provide a basic review of sociology during the first week of face-to-face Diversity classes. But for the online section, it was not so flexible to ask students to review sociology before taking on Diversity Studies.

“What is the best and clearest way to communicate with Ryan, without his potential denial or rejection, or even a worse scenario, dropping this course?” Mary was thinking and looking for a venue to feedback to Ryan.  Then, based on the experience in sociology teaching, Mary found most students understanding the concept of “role and status” easily through her meticulously designed in-class activities and worksheets. And role-and-status is precisely related to Ryan’s questions.

“Ryan, you are doing well for this class so far. I would like to discuss a couple of ideas related to your questions. I know this feedback is long. Hopefully, you can spend a little bit of time with me. I understand your feeling about your stigmas and non-privileged conditions, and I am trying to share some thoughts with you in this regard.”

“I teach sociology too. I would like to begin with the ideas of ‘role and status’ relevant to your current conditions.  We as human beings are the product of our society and culture which offer us both freedom and constraints, based on sociological perspectives.  There are many invisible social forces that shape the way we think and act that tend to be taken for granted, in addition to genetic makeups.”

“Like on the stage, there are many performers with different roles and statuses based on scripts written by writers, and/or screen playwriters, directed by the film director. Some might act like puppets, some puppeteers, and some act in both roles. They interact with one another to act out a drama. Let me begin with two interesting human conditions: ascribed status and achieved status, guiding roles in the drama’s scripts. Ascribed status is the social position that is born with, or involuntarily assumed in later life. For example, you don’t have a choice to be born with the skin color of your preference, such as white, black, yellow, brown, or any other colors. In this case, you were born white. You don’t have the choice to be born into Bill Gates’ family, or born into a ghetto or slum. You don’t choose to be born into the US, or Afghanistan. And you mentioned, being poor, living in the trailer park. You don’t have a choice to be born a boy or a girl, and we know there are still cultures that prefer boys, and some practice female infanticide, or aborted when sex was identified in the womb. In your case you were born, a male.  (I know, born to be a boy nowadays, might not be privileged as it used to be 😊.)  So, before life is born, there are many conditions predetermining the life chances and opportunities in the people’s life.”
 
“So, the ascribed status enables or disables in positive, negative, or cancel-out ways on people’s lives in race, class, gender, nationality, localities, sometimes, even in religions, before one is born.”

“Fortunately, human beings are not like other animals. They don’t change much of the genetic features and most of them live by instincts.  For us humans, through personal endeavors (both positive and negative) with opportunities (positively and negatively available), the life journey can be changed in positive and/or negative ways. This is called ‘Achieved Status”.   One, based on the ascribed positive and/or negative statuses achieves positive and/or negative statuses during the trajectory of one’s life. For example, some individuals achieve as a con-artist, or a drug addict, while others, achieve as an excellent student or employee of the month,” Mary wrote.

As you said, “I am a white male student.” You have not ascribed a color or female sex.  Though born into a male and white might not privilege as you feel, that I can understand. You mentioned the “stigmas” that you possessed as a poor guy, raised by a single mom, living in a trailer park. In fact, you referred to the concept of social class which was the most important, yet invisible, elusive notion in Diversity Studies.  Social class strongly correlates to the life chance, life opportunities, and cultural capital which link to access to health care, education, and jobs. In short, a person’s social class intersects with his/her race, gender, sexuality, ability/disability, nationality, language, physicality and so on bio-cultural features affects his/her social mobility tendency.”

“Ryan, I know the notion of ascribed-vs.-achieved statuses as the beginning point of our conversation about privilege and stigma might seem abstract, and not exactly related to your conditions. What I think about you is that your race and sex/gender might be offset (or cancel out) by your social class condition. Thus, you feel you have no privilege at all and the stigmas are a bundle. In the previous Unit, we discussed the concept of “Intersectionality” which can be useful to unpack some social phenomena, particularly, privilege and stigma.  I remember I used an example for you guys to explain what the intersectionality was about: “the life chance/opportunity of ‘a blind, slave-descendant, lesbian, living in a poor area’,” what could happen, if there is no awareness, knowledge, and social policy to support the less fortunate people with various predicaments, who have no direct fault of their own?”

“Let me know if you have further questions. Welcome to my office for a chat if by chance, you stop by the main campus.  Mary.”

Mary sent the feedback to Ryan, attached with extra information for his reference:
1. Video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX_Vzl-r8NY
2. Checklist https://sites.google.com/a/u.boisestate.edu/social-justice-training/about-us/our-training/privilege-checklist

3. Book: The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators by Michael Rothberg for an extra reading.