Some Pandas, A Buddha, and Me

The campaign trail continues and the inevitable issue of race comes out again. I find it funny that it seems that Obama is trying to not be the Black candidate, but maybe Hillary is trying to be the Woman candidate; it seems that race is more volatile than gender. I wonder what you all think. Anyway, whenever a Black, especially a male, achieves something great, the obvious next question is what should we do about affirmative action. I was reading an article on MSNBC.COM about AA's relevance. Many say that it should really be based on socioeconomic status and not on race at all. I have never had a strong conviction for or against affirmative action, but I do feel that it is an institution whose necessity or lack there of will not be realized until it is vanquished. Seeing that things have changed in many sectors of our country, and that the Black Middle class is increasing, I think, is AA necessary?

Well, it seems we only have two choices: either reverse discrimination (which I think is a funny term, excuse my bias) or normal discrimination. Of course, dissolving AA based on race or gender is assuming that our educational system from elementary to higher learning, and our labor system, professional or other, is beyond race and gender, and that AA based solely on socioeconomics will not just show preferential treatment disproportionately towards poor whites. I guess that is easy for me to say, being a Black male, that is if an employer doesn't decided to kill two birds with one stone, A Black Female or Latina. Anyway, if your bet is yes, we have transcended such trivial things, then let us dissolve race and gender based AA and see what happens, but please wait until I get a Doctorate degree and a career first.

On the other hand, maybe race and gender are still issues in our land and that AA is not the most efficient way to approach it. Laws can not change the attitudes of people directly, but it can force them into a situation where an opportunity to see something differently is placed right in front of their eyes. Whether one takes advantage of that opportunity is another issue.

To be honest, I have an easier time writing about what I feel than simply writing what I did on a certain occasion. I know, I am weird guy. The reason this blog has taken so long is that I have had a really hard time being disciplined about giving you details concerning my travels, so I am sorry but I am going to be skimpy on the particulars.

I was in Cheng Du, China staying in a comfortable four star Hotel room with an uncomfortable bed. We arrived in Cheng Du (Sarah and I) on an afternoon flight. Sarah gave her passport to the airport official, and he proceeds as normal. After she is done I go up to the counter and hand him my passport, and suddenly I get a couple of questions, probably because I am not Asian, remember Sarah has an American Passport. He asks if I am traveling along, I said no I am here with my friend, the one who just left your counter. At this point, Sarah had headed to the baggage claim belt, which was very close, but still she was out of sight. Thus, another lady comes over and asks where she is, and I have no idea. Finally, she comes into view, and she says, "the girl in the green?" I say yes. Then she asks me if she is Chinese, I say "no, she is American." I don't mention that she is Korean, I don't know how the Chinese-Korean relations are, so I decided to play it safe. Anyway, I make it through the check point with no problem, and the officials were not harassing me or being rude, they were just, well I don't know, I guess doing their job, but it is interesting how I always seem to get the third degree in China.

Now, there were two main sites that I wanted to see. The first was the Panda Reserve.

The next shots are of the unappreciated Red Pandas. In fact, for about 8USD, I was able to hold one of these suckas. Although it mentioned in a travel guide that holding the pandas was possible, Sarah and I felt a little strange about how we were approached with the opportunity. It was done somewhat quietly, as if it was against the rules, but regardless, I HELD A RED PANDA!!!

As you can see, the panda reserve was wonderful, there is nothing more hilarious than watching six giant pandas eat in unison on their backs. While in the park, I received a lot of attention. If you didn't know, the Chinese enjoy staring at Black folks, tall folks, and people with bright hair. Not to mention, other Asians or cultures that they are not use to seeing. Thus, I got stared at a lot, so much that it became really irritating. I actually told some of the students here, who will be studying in US this summer that staring is a big no no in the US. In some cases, you will get cussed out. Anyway, some students wanted to take a picture with me because I am dark and foreign, so I did.

My next destination was the Leshan GIANT Buddha. My goodness, someone had too much time on their hands, because this thing is enormous. The park was nicely decorated with shrubs and brick pathways. We had to stand in this long line, while being stared at. The line was somewhat intense, because there were these guys in military like uniforms yelling Mandarin into the crowd trying to keep the line organized and moving. I felt like a refugee in line for grits or P.O.W walking to my death. The experience was all too great. Did I mention that English is barely spoken in Cheng Du? The funniest things is that since Sarah is Asian (Korean not Chinese), people only talk to her. In some cases, I will ask a question and the person will turn from me and just start rambling in Mandarin to Sarah. Then Sarah will look confused and says she doesn't understand, then they will pause and just keep talking. In many cases, people don't even look at me, they just hold conversations with her, as she stares blankly at them.

So, how am I doing now? Well, it's all good. My work is pretty slow at the moment, but I have had some wonderful encounters with students. I was losing my motivation in this job, but then I sit down with some students and I remember what I liked about being here in the first place. Forget the disappointment, the frustration involved with expectations being crushed, forget the cultural conundrums and difficulties, forget the fact that students are always going to be 20 minutes late for anything I do and they will assume that it is ok. Forget that dessert in HK is usually something that is lightly sweet and not really sweet. Forget what we were fed and what we really ended up eating, and forget that most students will not take my time or my fellow ETA's time seriously, ever. In the end, all that matters are the many good moments I have had chatting with students, sharing my thoughts, hearing their concerns about life, travel, and English. I hope I can leave this place with such a feeling. I actually went to a poetry reading the other night and performed. It was wonderful, I was well received.

All the ETA's will be in Nanjing China later this month, I will be sure to tell you all about it. I hope that I have not kept you waiting for too long. Blogging gets more and more difficult as the months past. I hope your Easter was wonderful and blessed. Until I blog again.

Thinking Inside The Black

I was born Black, and now I live Black.
I will die Black, because I am Black,
Black is what I have to be.
I can never not be Black or change that fact,
and at times I can't even be me.
I have to be Black.

When I had my first Black History class, I gave the three out five students that showed up some quick facts. I asked them about there opinion about my culture, and then I asked them a very difficult question. I wanted them to identify my Nationality, Race, and Ethnicity. The first two were easy and the last was very difficult, partially because it is a tricky question. I explained to my students that if they were born in the US, their Nationality would be American, there race would be Asian, and their ethnicity would be Chinese, ignoring the complication that China itself contains about 56 ethnic groups. My ethnicity doesn't pan out in such a way. In some countries ethnicity, race, and nationality are all lumped together. In others, ones identity can be chopped up in so many different flavors. Let us just call my ethnicity African-American.

Sometimes, I get the strangest questions such as: "do Blacks cut their hair by burning it." Well, perhaps this is more so a misunderstanding derived from old perms that Blacks use to get. You know the one that Malcolm X gets in the beginning of the Spike Lee Joint. Anyways, I corrected them. Then there are the normal fears that students wonder about with regards to Blacks and crime, apparently if you go to New York a Black person will either rob you or sell you drugs. I have never been to New York, maybe it is true, and maybe I am in the wrong business. I usually follow those comments with, "well, it depends where you go.

Now, I have gone through a couple of stages here in HK, and now I am in a new stage that I like to call, "Thinking Inside the Black." This phase is characterized by heighten awareness of my cultural background and cultural appearance. It is not paranoia or frustration, it is just a strong awareness.

Another Black History class focused on my culture after reconstruction, and how the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were re-interpreted and raped by state laws and supreme court rulings. I only have one student now, so it was an intimate conversation. Now that I am a phony Black History professor, I have had to read up on the thoughts of Booker T Washington, WEB Du Bois (which is actually pronounced in the non-french way, "boys"), and Marcus Garvey. All very interesting people, what is even more interesting is what they said about each other.

My hair went uncut for a good while. I just felt like growing it out and being more ethnic as we say in some circles, but I have cut it low once again. Sorry Lisa, no dread locks yet.



The ETAs where invited to a Fulbright related trip to Macau SAR (Special Administration Region). Macau is a region of China that was colonized by the Portuguese. Now it has become the Las Vegas of the East, dominated by the gambling industry. One of the strangest things is that every street sign is written in Chinese, English, and Portuguese. But, no one really speaks Portuguese in Macau. When the Portuguese where in charge, they did not mix with the locals too much, and they only colonized the region politically and not culturally, thus the native Chinese were not forced to learn the Euro language. Yet, Portuguese is still considered an official language, and English is widely spoken. I saw several sites, and I will just hit a few for you.

First, below are two pictures from A-Ma Temple the oldest building in Macau, in fact it predates Macau's founding. It was said that it was the only building in the area when the Portuguese came in the mid 16th century. During our history session, there was a bit of a discussion between our Portuguese presenter and one of the local presenters. The Portuguese professor made the comment that Macau was never a colony, because there was never an imposing of culture, which is true. Additionally, the Chinese government allowed the Portuguese to be there, and could have took steps to push them out at any time. However, others retorted that since the Portuguese politically controlled the area, and higher positions were reserved for the Portuguese alone that it can be said that it was at least a political colony. It was all very interesting listening to the polite exchange. Having been to Mozambique, an actual Portuguese colony, my first assumption is always wherever the Europeans went on their old conquest they rape and pillage the land, leaving nothing behind. I know, that is a sweeping indictment, aw well.








The next couple of pictures are from St. Dominic's Church founded in 1587 in Macau. It was actually wooden at first, but a fire damaged most of it so it was built with stone.




Next, we have a picture of the St. Paul Cathedral ruins. The church was built in 1602-1640, and there was St. Paul college adjacent to it as well. The remaining facade is perhaps the symbol of Macau, as like the Statute of liberty is the symbol of New York. I tried to think of what would be the symbol of Birmingham (Besides racism and segregation that continues today). No, Vulcan is not the symbol of B'ham. You all ponder on that and tell me what you think the symbol of B'ham is.



The next couple of pictures are just random. Like I said, Macau is a gambling destination, but people don't stay more than one night usually, there really isn't much else to see. Nonetheless, it is a beautiful city, and a very interesting place. I think the first pic is of a big casino in the back drop.


We also visited the Venetian, which was gorgeous. The picture below is of the Venice section of the Venetian, complete with a river and boats with workers singing Italian songs to you and your lover, and yes, most of them had good singing voices.


This is just a picture from my Hotel window.


Okay, for dinner one night we went to a place called the fisherman's wharf, which seemed like a theme park type place. There where alot of replicas and sections that exhibited different cultures. Below you can see a replica of the Colosseum, there was New Orleans house, a Mississippi house, and several other American representations. I also found an African buffet restaurant that was wonderful. Sorry, I don't have many pictures of this place.

People are a work of art. God creates us with beautiful soft clay, and then we are thrust upon the world. Once we are in this life, the world adds clay to us, it molds us here and there, and even paints us certain colors. Hopefully, what the world has done is added to what God created, but that is not always true. Hopefully, what the world has done was left our initial purpose and character untouched, that God character, but that is not always true. Thus, we are immediately molded and pushed from God, and our lives are just struggle after struggle to get back to what we were suppose to be. I received some good news over the week that I had been accepted into grad school program at Claremont Graduate School in California. While I pray that finances will fall from heaven, I am over joyed that my next step or journey has been decided, and I stand doubtless that God is in it somewhere. Being in Hong Kong has allowed me to see how the world has shaped me, and some things are honestly not pretty, but other characteristics are truly exceptional, and I have you all to thank for it. My Family, Friends, and great institutions that have added clay and color. I look forward to seeing what I blossom into. Until I blog again, touch someone else as you have all touched me.

The Year of The Rat

While I wait for a Democrat to take more money out of my check, weaken my military, redefine Marriage, and continue the onslaught on the Zygote population; or a Republican to pretend that hunters may need assualt rifles and handguns to bag a trophy buck, (humans more often hunt humans with such weapons), and to plan the next government to topple or to believe that moving students from one school to another in some way improves the education system, and while Republican suits shutter over McCain and Huckabee bringing ruin to the Red Ranch, and Bill Clinton rustles through old closets trying to find his Black card and Black shoe polish for his cheeks, plenty of things have been rumbling through my mind.

So it is Black History Month, I guess I am suppose to be excited about that, especially since I will be teaching a course on The Black Experience next week, assuming that students will actually sign up for the course. I have spent many years running away from Black History, for a couple of reasons the largest being how it has always been fed to me with a notion that if I do not know these facts I am nothing. If the MLK's birthday slips my mind, somehow I am being disrespectful or if I do jump at the chance to learn about Harriet Tubman I am not Black enough and a disgrace to the culture. I understand such stories are suppose to give young brothers like me hope that I can achieve great things in a society that seems to know more about my color's failures than success; however, I've always had a mother to give me that encouragement; others aren't so blessed. During college, it came to my attention that all of my life (I know it is funny when a 24-year-old uses such a phrase) I have never been taught Black culture, but only dates, names, and places. When You study World War I, you study the ways in which it affected WWII and what was learn because of the two wars. At least in my education, when you study Black History you learn names what they did, where they did it, and how they died, and magicly you are suppose to gather something of substance from such a vague list of information. Perhaps I am strange, because some do get alot out of it, I need more. I treat Black History like I treat Church. If you expect me to enjoy a "God is Good all the time sermon" telling me what Christians already assume then you are wasting your time, I need more. Giving me a list of Black accomplishments doesn't make my face shine, I am proud, but uninterested; I need depth. I have rambled to ask the question: how do I teach facts and substance in eight classes? Moreover, how do I teach substance when I have not been taught substance? We will find out in the coming weeks.



Lets talk about health. While I write this I am sick, which is the second time on this trip. The first time earlier in the school year I was very fatigue, somewhat similar to my sickness in Cambine, Mozambigue yet here I am able to walk without worry of falling over. Now, I have the same fatigue very slightly, and stomach issues as well. Since my landing in Asia, I have lost 11 pounds due to the lack of Southern grease and American additives and other junk we lace our food with. I will be fine tomorrow. My spiritual health is intact, I just finished reading a wornderful book called I Don't Have Enough Faith To Be An Athiest by Normal L Geisler and Frank Turek. The book claims that it takes much more faith to be an athiest than a Christian, and ultimately more faith to believe in any other religion other than Christianity. It uses scientific research, logic, philosopical discussion to prove its points. With compelling evidence it reveals evolution as a broken theory and basically debunks all other faiths as truth. It was a really fantastic read. I also read The Alchemist, which was wonderful, and I am trying to sift through Surprised By Joy and The Abolition of Man both CS Lewis works, and I am about to start reading A Lesson before Dying by Earnest Gaines.

I want to be Liberated, free from what you see,

detached from the damage that my words,

my run-a-muck conclusion, and the skin color

illusion have on my character, what my heart

meant to say before my intellect got carried away.

Can I be carried away by free winds, not man made

oscillating fans. I want to liberated before captivity

consumes and dooms me. Set me free old truth,
and do it in my youth; not in the golden years when few

lend me their ears, arrogant, know it all young folks.

I want to be liberated, end the lease to the liar living

inside of me whispering apprehension, self-suspiscion

all within me, taking too lightly my potential. I want

to be liberated from secular sentiment, the morality

and animalistic freedom predicament. I want to be
free.

Writing is on and off here. The above passage is the first stanza in a new poem I am writing, but I stand stuck at the moment. Writing here is interesting. It doesn't come too easily, but when it does it is usually good, or at least something I like. Trust me, I have written tons of things I don't like, but I keep them as a reminder of my writing's development. My journaling has come to a standstill, but I am trying to get back to it. As for writing down my thoughts, that is sometimes promising and other times I just can't find the words. Poetry is strictly on inspired bases only. In the past, I could just make a poem out of my everyday thoughts, but not here. Perhaps that is good. My significant other has challenged me to write a Fiction work, which I have started on and it has proven to be a great challenge that I am enjoying.





As some of you may know, it is The Year of The Rat. Chinese New Year in Mainland has been affected by severe snow storms and a transportation gridlock because of it. Many of the students from central and northern China didn't even attempt to go home. In Hong Kong, there isn't any snow, but there is a chill factor that I did not expect. For the first part of the cold season I was reminded of the 93 snowstorm where my family were freezing in our powerless Pratt City home for days. Obviously, there is not any heat in the dorms so I broke down about a week ago and bought a small heater for about $25 USD. Despite its size, it makes my room very toastie.



There were plenty of feastvities in Hong Kong celebrating Chinese New Year. I only attended the parade which was smaller than I expected, but still interesting since I don't think I have ever seen a parade in person. Here are some pictures from the show.





I hope all the pictures have made you smile. They are just from around Hong Kong during the break. Here are some more.




Well, I hope this blog makes up for the last one, and brings a little cheer, laughter and careful thought into your lives. My mother's Birthday is in a week or so (FEB 22) and I hope that it is a great day, I think she is turning 30 or something close to it. I wish I could spend it with you mama. Until I blog again, be cool friends.

This Year is Truly New

I initially thought that he was simply a gimmick. A new Democratic token set in place to continue the notion that to be progressive you have to be liberal. He spoke, and I realized that he could tame fire and electricity all in the same breath. So, I thought, finally we have someone spectacular to replace Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, but I imagine that hot air or myself could replace them. He decided to run for president; I thought, well, that is extremely ambitious, I hope he has a bullet proof vest. Then there were the polls, the debates, and finally Iowa. Suddenly I thought, oh my damn!, this Negro might be able to win. I am not saying that Obama has my vote, but he surely has my utmost respect and a piece of my heart as well. It is no secret amongst my friends that my hat tilts to the right, I usually define myself as a moderate conservative, but who knows what will happen this year.

This is truly a new year. Discovering January 1st again doesn't make a year new, that is just recycling. A year is new when so much has changed, and it is very clear that the "new year" will have very little in common with the previous year. I know, we try to make it new by making resolutions that we never keep, or by following through with changing one thing in our lives, and usually it is something easy like new curtains or more environmental friendly light bulbs. A painted room is not a new room, it is just a room that's been refreshed. This year is ultimately new for me, because from now until December, I will be engaged in something new. From watching a Woman and African-American fight for the top spot in their political party, and it is almost frightening to think that they are the only contenders on the left side, (a tear for Edwards). I am facing my last semester here in HK with as much optimism as I can muster. I have applied to more graduate programs, and when I return home I will either be involved in a program I love, or be working and waiting to reapply, which is a thought that scares me more than Hillary Clinton as president (I couldn't resist, I just might move to Liberia if that happens). So, the year is new in the most revolutionary sense, and I am relishing in it.

It seems that I have alot of catching up to do. I will try my best to get you back on track with what's going on with me in HK, but it probably won't be in this blog. This blog is going to be very skimpy, sorry. Here is a picture from my HK Church's (The Vine Center) Christmas Play.

This is a picture of most of the ETAs and some of our Research Fulbright friends on a cruise sponsored by a great gentlemen named Danny Lui, along side our good friend Glenn Shive, who is responsible for making our program possible.

So my good friend Will came to visit for about two weeks. We had a good time, some moments were very funny, and others a little sad as we experience sudden battles with homesickness. It didn't feel like Christmas at all. New Years was brighter. We spent our time in Central waiting on fireworks that weren't really that good at all. It is sad when Birmingham, Alabama has better fireworks than you. We were pre-warned by some locals that New Years in HK is not that big of a deal, but that Chinese New Year will be something exciting and wonderful.




Here are my pals, Will, Shanita, Sarah, and me.


This Picture is taken during our long bus ride back to the airport. Will's time in HK had ended. I put him through some interesting living situations. The first week he stayed in an clean but small room that was about the size of an walk-in closet with a bathroom/shower combination. For the last part of his visit he stayed in a somewhat nasty dorm like hostel that was at least one hour and a half from my campus. The Hostel was on top of a small mountain, so it had a great view, but you had to take a 20 minute bus ride down the incline in order to get anywhere, and the bus didn't have a public transportation type schedule. In fact, if he didn't leave on the 11am bus, then he would be stuck until 3pm.

The next semester has started and things are looking better. Like I said in my last blog, I am being very optimistic and prayerful about as much as I can. These last two pictures are just random. This one is of the kids I try to teach. They were well behave during this class for the most part, perhaps my making half of them sit against the wall, and everyone sit in silence for ten minutes during the previous class had something to do with it. Probably not, they still ran around and ignored me and my colleague a little. And the last picture is of a HUGE pool table in a bowling alley in Hung Hom, HK.



Well, there isn't really much to say this time. Life is going as normal. I am certain that my next blog will be more eventful and interesting. Just keep your eyes open, until I blog again.