Posts
Apr 30, 2009
In India, a Grass-Roots Shift
"Are you fed up with the same old faces in Indian elections? The same old choices between thugs or thieves?" Mona Shah, an eye surgeon-turned-politician, raised her bullhorn as she weaved and ducked among the slippery nooks and narrow alleys of a slum in this mega-city.
Apr 24, 2009
Model Minority - Myth or Reality ?
Interesting article in USA Today on how the changing admissions rules in California Univerisities causing angst among Asian-Americans that it will effect them negatively. Briefly the CA Univeristies were relaxing the rules around the SAT subject courses which were mandatory before, and to primarily encourage participation from other minorities such as African and Hispanic Americans.
This was second in recent times that I have seen and wondering about the myth vs reality of this controversial topic on "whether the elite US universities are some what Biased in their admissions policy against Asian Americans" ? So it was interesting to read public comments on web from general community on this topic.
Comment 1. "is this a left wing looney liberal policiy to punish those who are the smartest and work the hardest ?"
Comment 2. "Neither gender, race, or ethnic background should come into play when it comes to being accepted by a college. Take all this information off of the college applications and accept applicants based on their SAT score, High School GPA, and extra curriculum activities. This way no one party can complain about being discriminated against."
Comment 3. "There is an unhealthy cloud hanging over the asian population if education is the only avenue you should be concerned about while growing up and/or going to college. There is a thing called "living" that one needs to experience along the way of education. I think from my observation, alot of asian kids here in southern california don't get that cause they are being driven face first into their school work by their 1st generation parents! What do you think?"
Comment 4. "It's a myth that all Asians work hard because it's in our culture, but it's because the people who could afford to immigrate to America from Asia and India are already successful, so it's more likely that their kids would be successful. It's called the 'Myth of the Model Minority'. It is a self-selecting group of high achievers who emigrate from one place and come to America as a higher socio-economic group than the average of where they came from. There may be some special cases where the barrier to immigration here is different, but in general the self-selection trends to the higher strata individuals/families."
Comment 5. "Asian parents can give their children a more European name, which will help their kids in other aspects of their lives too."
Comment 6."So you study hard, do your homework, do plenty of community service and graduate at the top of your class BUT because of your ethnicity, you get denied a college education. When did common sense die?"
Comment 7."Hey! If we're lowering the standards on education to increase diversity, does this mean that major corporations (eg Microsoft, Cisco, Pfizer, etc) will lower their standards too? Is Lower education standard=more jobs being outsourced? Are we saying that Bill Gates is an idiot when he made the comment, "We need to strengthen our education system compared to other countries?"
It does feel like the much-acclaimed Oscar winning 2005 movie "Crash" (which by the way I loved watching !), and shows clash of cultures and races as we struggle with skewed prejudices associated.
Ofcourse while researching this, I did find interesting concept "Model Minority", which is most commonly used to label one ethnic minority achieving higher than another ethnic minority.
In the United States, the term has usually been associated with East Asian Americans and Indian Americans. Intend to explore this further... here are some related links if you are interested to follow along.
Link1 Link2 Link3 MIT Princeton Invesigration
Finally, these topics are as controversial as the subject of 'racism' and 'reservations a.k.a affirmative action' itself, and would love to hear your opinion too. Please feel free to send or post your comments... Adios
This was second in recent times that I have seen and wondering about the myth vs reality of this controversial topic on "whether the elite US universities are some what Biased in their admissions policy against Asian Americans" ? So it was interesting to read public comments on web from general community on this topic.
Comment 1. "is this a left wing looney liberal policiy to punish those who are the smartest and work the hardest ?"
Comment 2. "Neither gender, race, or ethnic background should come into play when it comes to being accepted by a college. Take all this information off of the college applications and accept applicants based on their SAT score, High School GPA, and extra curriculum activities. This way no one party can complain about being discriminated against."
Comment 3. "There is an unhealthy cloud hanging over the asian population if education is the only avenue you should be concerned about while growing up and/or going to college. There is a thing called "living" that one needs to experience along the way of education. I think from my observation, alot of asian kids here in southern california don't get that cause they are being driven face first into their school work by their 1st generation parents! What do you think?"
Comment 4. "It's a myth that all Asians work hard because it's in our culture, but it's because the people who could afford to immigrate to America from Asia and India are already successful, so it's more likely that their kids would be successful. It's called the 'Myth of the Model Minority'. It is a self-selecting group of high achievers who emigrate from one place and come to America as a higher socio-economic group than the average of where they came from. There may be some special cases where the barrier to immigration here is different, but in general the self-selection trends to the higher strata individuals/families."
Comment 5. "Asian parents can give their children a more European name, which will help their kids in other aspects of their lives too."
Comment 6."So you study hard, do your homework, do plenty of community service and graduate at the top of your class BUT because of your ethnicity, you get denied a college education. When did common sense die?"
Comment 7."Hey! If we're lowering the standards on education to increase diversity, does this mean that major corporations (eg Microsoft, Cisco, Pfizer, etc) will lower their standards too? Is Lower education standard=more jobs being outsourced? Are we saying that Bill Gates is an idiot when he made the comment, "We need to strengthen our education system compared to other countries?"
It does feel like the much-acclaimed Oscar winning 2005 movie "Crash" (which by the way I loved watching !), and shows clash of cultures and races as we struggle with skewed prejudices associated.
Ofcourse while researching this, I did find interesting concept "Model Minority", which is most commonly used to label one ethnic minority achieving higher than another ethnic minority. In the United States, the term has usually been associated with East Asian Americans and Indian Americans. Intend to explore this further... here are some related links if you are interested to follow along.
Link1 Link2 Link3 MIT Princeton Invesigration
Finally, these topics are as controversial as the subject of 'racism' and 'reservations a.k.a affirmative action' itself, and would love to hear your opinion too. Please feel free to send or post your comments... Adios
Mar 17, 2009
National Debt hits another record $11 Trillion
I had earlier posted on my blog just as recently as in October 08 about the astonishing rate at which the national debt of US touched 10 Trillion and they had to bring a new digital counter to fit all those digits. Now just in six months.. here's the next one !
Now what does that mean ?
> Over $36,000 in debt for every man, woman and child in US.
> It took the U.S. government 191 years – from 1791 until 1982 – to run up its first trillion dollars in debt.
> By the time George W. Bush was inaugurated in 2001, the National Debt stood at $5.7-trillion. He ran up more debt faster than nearly all of his predecessors combined: just under $4.9-trillion. Also if you want teach your teen kids struggling with algebra on what a real-life example of "exponential" is, this could be your classic one !
> It's projected by Obama adminstration that by the end of September 2012, the Debt will have soared to $16.2-trillion – which amounts to nearly 100% of the projected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that year.
Wonder what's the big deal ? Debt to whom ? should we be worried ? or who should worry ? Ofcourse, it is.. check it out here for some Debt 101 class ! .
Only interesting are some of the signs if you chose to observe :
> 3/13/2008 "Worried Debtors & Reassurances on Creditworthiness" : China, proably the single largest buyer of U.S. debt in recent times, now starting to get concerned about the safety of the estimated $1 trillion his country has invested in U.S. government debt! Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Friday "We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S., so of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. Frankly speaking, I do have some worries," he said in response to a question. NYTimes Obama Reassures Countries on U.S. Debt
> Two days later, 3/16/08 : Bloomberg reports "Foreign Demand for Long-Term U.S. Assets Weakens". Quote from the article “There was a stampede by foreign investors to exit their U.S. dollar investments,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. “Everyone wants to bring their money home. It’s not about return on capital. It’s whether you can get your capital back.”
The decline in foreign holdings was the steepest since August 2007. Foreign investors sold a net 43 billion dollars in long-term US securities in January as the flow of capital turned negative, US Treasury data showed Monday.
Analysts say a loss of confidence in US Treasury securities could cause a dramatic drop in the dollar and force Washington to pay higher interest rates.
Now what does that mean ?
> Over $36,000 in debt for every man, woman and child in US.
> It took the U.S. government 191 years – from 1791 until 1982 – to run up its first trillion dollars in debt.
> By the time George W. Bush was inaugurated in 2001, the National Debt stood at $5.7-trillion. He ran up more debt faster than nearly all of his predecessors combined: just under $4.9-trillion. Also if you want teach your teen kids struggling with algebra on what a real-life example of "exponential" is, this could be your classic one !
> It's projected by Obama adminstration that by the end of September 2012, the Debt will have soared to $16.2-trillion – which amounts to nearly 100% of the projected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that year.
Wonder what's the big deal ? Debt to whom ? should we be worried ? or who should worry ? Ofcourse, it is.. check it out here for some Debt 101 class ! .
Only interesting are some of the signs if you chose to observe :
> 3/13/2008 "Worried Debtors & Reassurances on Creditworthiness" : China, proably the single largest buyer of U.S. debt in recent times, now starting to get concerned about the safety of the estimated $1 trillion his country has invested in U.S. government debt! Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Friday "We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S., so of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. Frankly speaking, I do have some worries," he said in response to a question. NYTimes Obama Reassures Countries on U.S. Debt
> Two days later, 3/16/08 : Bloomberg reports "Foreign Demand for Long-Term U.S. Assets Weakens". Quote from the article “There was a stampede by foreign investors to exit their U.S. dollar investments,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. “Everyone wants to bring their money home. It’s not about return on capital. It’s whether you can get your capital back.”
The decline in foreign holdings was the steepest since August 2007. Foreign investors sold a net 43 billion dollars in long-term US securities in January as the flow of capital turned negative, US Treasury data showed Monday.
Analysts say a loss of confidence in US Treasury securities could cause a dramatic drop in the dollar and force Washington to pay higher interest rates.
Feb 4, 2009
Cost of Economy rescue: Adding up the dollars
Any idea how much all the US government bailouts so far cost ?
700 billion ? 1.6 Billion ? 1.4 Trillion ? ..
it's a whopping 3.6 trillion sofar already spent out of an allocated sum of $9.1 trillion..
let's put that as number $ 9100,000,000,000 ....
Unbelievable ? check out how and where it all went here
700 billion ? 1.6 Billion ? 1.4 Trillion ? ..
it's a whopping 3.6 trillion sofar already spent out of an allocated sum of $9.1 trillion..
let's put that as number $ 9100,000,000,000 ....
Unbelievable ? check out how and where it all went here
Old behaviours to New
The current news everywhere highlights that how far the pendulum is swinging in opposite direction, that too in such a short span... whether it's related to Global economies, US ecoonomy, Climate patterns - all seems record breaking !! the levels of losses in billions, worst conditions, gloomy forecasts !.
But all is not bad.. there is a new face to the economy in 2009 as people seem to come back to their senses and grasp the new reality and kick some good old habits goodbye ! Check few below..
> American spending has fallen further in the past six months than it has since 1974. For much of this decade, many Americans lived beyond the means of their regular income, tapping cheap credit and the rising value of their homes for extra cash. For a time, the savings rate fell almost to zero... But now in the final quarter of 2008, the savings rate reached its highest level since 2002. In December 2008, Americans saved 3.6 percent of their income.
> Major lossess & job cuts announced in last couple of weeks
Bloody Monday: 74,000 layoffs announced in one day - Caterpillar, Pfizer, Sprint, HomeDepot, GM, Texas Instruments...
US auto sales plunge to 27 yr lows
Bank Failures Will Cost FDIC $40 Billion
BHP Billiton posts 56.5 pct fall in 6-month profit
Macy's Announces 7,000 Job Cuts
Major layoffs at Microsoft -
Orange County, California employers cut 41,400 jobs in 2008, tied with 1991 for the worst local job loss, the state Employment Development Department Friday.
Unemployment sweeps nation - Where does your state rank? Check it out here
But all is not bad.. there is a new face to the economy in 2009 as people seem to come back to their senses and grasp the new reality and kick some good old habits goodbye ! Check few below..
> American spending has fallen further in the past six months than it has since 1974. For much of this decade, many Americans lived beyond the means of their regular income, tapping cheap credit and the rising value of their homes for extra cash. For a time, the savings rate fell almost to zero... But now in the final quarter of 2008, the savings rate reached its highest level since 2002. In December 2008, Americans saved 3.6 percent of their income.
> Major lossess & job cuts announced in last couple of weeks
Bloody Monday: 74,000 layoffs announced in one day - Caterpillar, Pfizer, Sprint, HomeDepot, GM, Texas Instruments...
US auto sales plunge to 27 yr lows
Bank Failures Will Cost FDIC $40 Billion
Panasonic set to cut 15,000 jobs - The world's largest maker of plasma TVs
BHP Billiton posts 56.5 pct fall in 6-month profit
Macy's Announces 7,000 Job Cuts
Major layoffs at Microsoft -
Orange County, California employers cut 41,400 jobs in 2008, tied with 1991 for the worst local job loss, the state Employment Development Department Friday.
Unemployment sweeps nation - Where does your state rank? Check it out here
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