The International Examiner

I don’t even remember how it began. My eldest sister is in my apartment, screaming and yelling at me with a nonsensical fury. There is something about me not going to work. There is something about me going out late at night. Is this woman crazy? I shut down her every attack with calm but [...]

For the last several months, I’ve been enjoying the Lasik, which Jameelah and I both got on a whim while in Vietnam. That’s right, we passed by an eye hospital, saw the sign that said: “Lasik surgerie, much cheap,” and went inside. After a barrage of tests and cultural hijinx, we got the procedure done. [...]

Media is an under appreciated industry. Yes, mainstream media gets a bad rap now and then — sensationalizing serious matters and trivializing people’s lives and opinions into ‘news’. But community media is not that — at least it’s not supposed to be. Community news is closer to the ground and the people its news impacts. [...]

The Hirabayashi “coram nobis” case is a landmark civil rights case which exposed the racial prejudice of government officials in promulgating military orders which led to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, a wave of anti-Japanese hysteria swept over the western United States. On February 19, [...]

The main purpose of TV, I would say, is to help us escape from our daily lives. I come home exhausted after hours of telling people what to do and taking credit for their work, so an outlet for escapism is much needed. So I started watching Law and Order and other shows that are [...]

(I’m often asked to share a personal story in my editorials. Here’s one I remember fondly.) I had to make one hundred basketball shots a day the summer after I turned 13. It was my mom’s idea. She’d sit on the weathered porch of our Mukilteo home, peeling an orange or seated on an exercise [...]

Once upon a time, there was a peaceful little Chinese village called Peach Blossom (aww!). The villagers were humble and hardworking. They spent their days farming their fields and when they got home, they sat on their couch made out of hay and stared out the window, hoping something interesting would happen among their neighbors. [...]

In the fall, I was featured on the popular blog, 8Asians (www.8asians.com). Among the interview questions, they asked: “What’s your personal motto?” I had never thought about that so I had none. But, I figured the closest thing to an answer is sharing my life philosophy – what guides who I am, the decisions I [...]

When Americans came back from defeating the Germans after World War II, there were ticker-tape parades. When the last U.S. helicopter lifted off from Saigon, Vietnam on April 30, 1975, the image seared deep into the American psyche; it spelled an ignominious end. For the first time in its history, America had been defeated. Its [...]

The turnaround in our local economy that we all wished for in 2011 didn’t occur. If you’re like me, you’re apprehensive about 2012. Cuts to federal, state and city government budgets seem to continually loom over us, affecting our lives one way or another. Politicians and elected officials point fingers at each other and at [...]

If you haven’t been following the web blog, You Offend Me You Offend My Family crew ( www.youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com ), then there’s a small storm of controversy brewing over an article written by Sung Kang over CBS’ travesty of a show, “Two Broke Girls.” We can scream online all day WITH ALL CAPS regarding the racial [...]

2011 will be remembered as a year of voices. The revolutions in Syria, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt had the world riveted. The Occupy Wall Street protests showed corporate powers that people won’t stand for corruption and inequality. Every individual wants their existence validated – to be shown they matter; that they have a voice and [...]

Quezon City, the Philippines. November 30, 2011 was the day Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes were the first Filipino Americans and the first labor union leaders to be added to the Wall of Martyrs at the Bantayog Center in Quezon City, near Manila. That morning, Silme’s 84-year-old mother, Ade Domingo, seemed a bit distracted. She [...]

 The season of giving stuff to other people is upon us. Sure, it’s been upon us since Halloween was over, but if you’re like me, you haven’t done your gift shopping yet. In fact, according to statistics that I made up, 75 percent of people and 100 percent of humor columnists do their shopping on [...]

Bellevue is now a multi-cultural and international city. Forty percent of its population is ethnic-minority; one-third is foreign-born; 27.5 percent Asian. It has an Asian American on its City Council for over 18 years. It has had plenty of opportunities for its Council members to choose to make this happen. The United States is a [...]

This year is the 100th anniversary of the overthrow of over 4,000 years of dynastic rule in China by revolutionaries led by Sun Yat-sen. For the past 100 years, Oct 10th (“10-10″) has been celebrated with huge parades and fanfare throughout the world, but especially in the United States. Why? Because even the recently released [...]

Last week, someone called me a “mensch” over email. I was about to write back and say, “Oh yeah? Well, your face looks like a butcher’s apron,” but I Wikipediaed it, and apparently a mensch is a “person of integrity and honor.” There are just some words that do not sound like what they mean. [...]

One of my favorite holiday memories is playing Scrabble with my dad. We once lived in Mukilteo in a tiny house that sat on a hill. In our living room, my father and I sat cross-legged on either side of a coffee table with a pellet stove crackling nearby. We didn’t say a word while [...]

For years, my parents wanted me to work for Boeing. We’re a big Boeing family. My father has worked there for over 30 years, my mother for about ten. My uncle and numerous family friends also clock-in at the Everett plant. Work and income stability was the name of the game and I think for [...]

The Social Security Administration (SSA) plans to close the ID office at 675 South Lane Street (and also at 901 Lenora Street) next Spring, and open a new office on the 9th Floor of the Jackson Federal Building, 915 Second Avenue, to replace them.  Community organizations and Congressman Jim McDermott have raised strong concerns about access to the new location [...]

What two students learned from their experience interning at a labor union. The following are their reflections. He Li He Li recently graduated from the University of Washington. He had an APALA fellowship which allowed him to work with the Service Employees International Union, (SEIU), Local 6. I was in a downtown Seattle skyscraper, a [...]

  Disclaimer: The IE does not endorse opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed in editorial articles.     By now hundreds of people have seen my face on flyers plastered on telephone and utility poles throughout the International District (ID). These flyers contain lies about me that have been fabricated by the Seattle Solidarity Network (SeaSol), [...]

My friends, we have reached a point of what I will now call “social siloism,” mainly because it makes me sound very smart. Basically, despite being more connected than ever through technology, or perhaps in spite of it, as individual units we are now very isolated from our friends and neighbors. We have become a [...]

Every ten years following the U.S. Census, Washington State undergoes a redistricting process to rebalance each of the state’s 49 legislative districts so they all have roughly equal populations. The task of the bipartisan Washington Redistricting Commission is to redraw each district into equal sizes based on the 2010 Census while respecting communities of interest. [...]

Welcome to another episode of “An Asian Dude’s Experience with Black Culture,” aka, “How I Torpedoed My Political Career before it Ever Got Started.” This week, Jameelah’s family from Louisiana came to visit, which I was genuinely excited about, and by that, I meant I was hoping to be afflicted with some sort of debilitating [...]

My husband, my brother-in-law, and I emerge from our ornate passenger boat after a morning cruising Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. Fishy saltwater fumes blast us in the face: we’re descending a flimsy gangplank above murky, brownish water, our destination the white-sand beach where lunch will be served. Rock formations jut from the serene water. Crisp [...]

A seven-year-old incarnation of Buddha offers me his bowl for breakfast.   Cold rice, 2 fried eggs, 4 boiled ones, round tangerines crisscrossing yellow stripes of banana, a fried snake, a bunch of grapes, some spiced pork in a leaf and a piece of sponge cake. The year is 1971 and I’m at a temple [...]

Welcome to our 2nd annual “Say What?! The Opinion Issue!” When I was first inspired last year to coordinate an Opinion Issue, our goal was to offer a space for our readers to speak out regarding matters they’re passionate about. We utilized the IE as their venue to share ideas, raise awareness, and inspire others [...]

Often times, the most labor-intensive jobs are also the most unappreciated. Janitorial work is among those services that many people take for granted. I work in a high-rise office building in downtown Seattle, and I have never met the person who sweeps up the crumbs I leave behind while eating at my desk to say [...]

It’s difficult, I think, to talk about a “state of” anything. How does one go about discussing complex issues in a few hundred words? What are the important points that need to be covered and who decides? When asked to write this particular op-ed, I imagined a different trajectory, one based on racism in the [...]