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Friday, February 26, 2021

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Feb. 23 (T), 2021 The Identity of Social Class

Zena LC Huang

MicroStory #22 The identity of social class



Zena LC Huang

Well, revisiting Sociology 101:
Though some societies allowed a tiny amount of social mobility within the class system, mainly, the upward one is minimal, particularly, of the "specific groups" of the population. Only recently, when education is more available, life chances also change. I attached a couple of previous teaching notes for reference:


Zena LC Huang

Cultural capital


Zena LC Huang

The myth of meritocracy related to cultural capital.


Zena LC Huang

Here is a fun calculator that might interest you:


Sunday, February 21, 2021

Feb. 21 (Sn), 2021 Half million of unnecessary, preventable or avoidable deaths

Zena LC Huang

Washington Post breaking news:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../500000-covid.../...


WASHINGTONPOST.COM
500,000 dead, a number almost too large to grasp500,000 dead, a number almost too large to grasp

Song for tonight:  Amazing Grace



Zena LC Huang

Citizen Journalism #189 This is not an organized crime


Feb. 21 9Sn), 2021 The Earth's Confession


Friends from my native country Taiwan shared a touching video of the young generation (attached below) that inspired me for the MicroStory #21



Zena LC Huang

The young generation, step by step,
designs projects for the ocean. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vD1AX6q0UE&feature=youtu.be


YOUTUBE.COM
AZURE|為湛而戰 海洋垃圾移除計畫

Saturday, February 20, 2021

Feb. 20 (Sa), 2021 an inch vs. a mile


Zena LC Huang

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ted-cruz-received-more-money-210444030.html



https://www.esquire.com/.../ted-cruz-fly-cancun-texas.../

Ted Cruz's One Night in Paradise Is Not the Only Texas Republican Failure in Need of Discussion


ESQUIRE.COM

Excerpted from the above article: "You might think that, considering his spouse is a managing director at Goldman Sachs, Ted Cruz would fly private if he were attempting to flee for the balmy climes of Cancun while his home state of Texas—the one he has theoretically devoted himself to serving in public office—sinks into turmoil. That might be the best defense the senator has at the moment, considering neither he nor his staff have come out to deny that he jumped on a United Airlines flight to Mexico on Wednesday while millions of Texans were preparing to try to survive the night. The state has been rocked by winter weather this week that quickly took the state's infrastructure past the breaking point. It's not just that people's lights are out. They don't have heat as the sub-freezing temperatures arrive with each night. Some of the state's largest cities are under boil-water orders, but many people can't actually boil water, since they're without electricity or gas. Things are beginning to improve on the ground now, but it has been something approaching a failed state.

So it's almost beyond belief that Cruz would take a commercial flight, in full view of hundreds of other travelers, under these circumstances. It would be so shameless as to reinforce the notion that shame no longer functions in our society at all. Imagine that. And yet Fox News is reporting that that's what he did. Even before the story was confirmed, some rushed to Flyin' Ted's defense on the basis that the pictures going viral weren't him, but even if it was, what was he supposed to do about the power grid? This included conservative luminary Erick, Son of Erick, who chalked it all up to "performative drama" on the basis that Cruz was never going to personally go out with a wrench and fix a natural gas pipeline, or whatever..."


Friday, February 19, 2021

Feb 19 (F), 2021 A longer story behind the following poster: An infinite search



Feb. 19 (F), 2021

A longer story behind the above poster:

Through self-solacing the unbearable sorrow, imagining in somewhere sometime of the eons, we shall meet again. Mary can feel the spirit of Mumi immersing in the chanting of mantras and scriptures. She is either going to a pure realm, a different dimension, ending the reincarnate cycles, if that is her last physical journey in this saha world. But if she is continuing her many-life journeys, then she could have been searching for a better life condition to reinvest her soul. Thinking this way as a self-comforting mechanism, Mary is calming down. The unhealable grief seems reduced a little bit.

But, the lacerating the agonizing soul, more excruciating than Mumi’s crossing the rainbow bridge, just began. Mary knows it would happen, but not in such a magnitude. Mumi’s daughter, NaNa, within a couple of days, she started feeling something wrong. She began her endless searching for Mumi, perhaps, Cleo as well. She has grown up with many cats, never, being alone.

Mary tries the best she can to comfort her by stroking, brushing, massaging, and filling up the best food she likes. But these comforts can only kill a tiny part of her overwhelming distress. She cries, howls, whenever she smells, feels, or even “sees” something. Particularly, in the deep nights. Mary will wake up to massage, brush and prepare for fresh food and water to distract her sadness revealed through her melancholy eyes and the head lowering postures.

Mary tries to stay in the living room where NaNa’s beddings, couches, and her favorite spots are located. But NaNa will move around through the nights to check the basements, explore closets, or saunter through other rooms in the house along with her voluminous howling. She is the only cat talking most of the time sonorously.

NaNa has been routinely checking Mary’s beddings, under the bed, inside the blanket, behind the door and closets for 3 weeks after Mumi passed away. These spots were Mumi’s favorite places where she used to accompany or snuggle with Mary. On several occasions, after her failure in searching, she gave Mary weird eyes and a mournful facial expression. She seems so tormented. Could she be suspicious that Mary hid Mumi somewhere?

Mary has to reschedule her daily routine to meet with NaNa’s. Mary must sleep early which is not her habit, so she can wake up around 4 to 5 am. to comfort NaNa’s crying-her-heart-out grief and come down her howling to prevent neighbors from “suspicion” or feeling irritated.

Around 5 am. (Feb. 18 W, 2021), Mary stayed on the couch to accompany NaNa after a long brushing and massaging over her. Then Mary fell asleep. Suddenly she woke up and found NaNa was not in the living room. Mary has been constantly keeping NaNa within her attention because sometimes NaNa seems playing hide-n-seek to keep Mary on high alert.

NaNa is a senior cat too.

She began her search for NaNa. Finally, Mary heard a door-scratching sound from the bathroom. Mary walked to check around. Upon seeing the tail, Mary saw NaNa trying to push the panel door. Behind it, Mumi sometimes stayed there.

Mary intended to help NaNa to know that Muni was not in the closet behind the door. So, Mary used her hand to push the panel that made sounds like a cat’s pushing-scratching. Meanwhile, NaNa on the floor also pushed without realizing Mary also did the same thing simultaneously. NaNa thought that Mumi was inside the closet and tried to push out, so the same sounds happened. Finally, the panel door was open by Mary. NaNa eagerly checked under the bottom shelf where was Mumi’s favorite spot. But Mumi was not there. NaNa was cocksure since Mumi made the scratching sound, she must have been inside the closet. Then NaNa, at once, standing with her hind legs, anxiously stretched her belly and raised her two paws to reach the shelf above the lower one where towels, linens were located.

She tried hard to climb on this shelf to see if Mumi was hiding inside these fabric things. But the shelf is too high for her to climb. Mary held her up to see through the 2nd shelf and the top shelf.

What else could one do at that juncture? Who would deny how cruel it was to kill her hope in finding her mother…

Mary, the tears were oozing out, again.

Thursday, February 18, 2021

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Feb. 17 (W), 2021 The death of R L

Rush Limbaugh died at 70. Why, the "super-model", not the husband?

https://thehill.com/.../539213-rush-limbaugh-dead-at-70



Zena Crystal LC Huang

A 3-decade long-term "loyal" listener. I've got to "miss" him from 11 am. to 2 pm. like missing Jordan's playing basketball.

He had been the VERY first radio syndicated talkshow host who Caught my Attention since 1990 during my first semester as a grad student in the US.

Zena Crystal LC Huang

Though having made some Horrfric fun at him at the Opposite End of the political spectrum, I was constantly amazed by his frenzical, super-propagandistic "professionalism".

He, was, an ultra-effective sensationalist and instigator, engorging the 1st Amendment that made the false-consciousness so genuine.

Optimistically speaking, his Professional propagandism proving one thing: the US. Democracy, though fragile, is accommodating enough for more than three decades’ ravage, remaining indestructible.

Examples, below:
Zena Crystal LC Huang

Found a couple of posters during the campaign season. He "raked" marks on my posters...




Monday, February 15, 2021

Feb. 15 (M), 2021 MicroStory Series #18 THE

MicroStory Series #18  THE



Some friends enjoy learning English. Me, too.

Do you agree -
constantly learning a different language can boost the heart, enrich the brain, nourish the mind, soothe the soul, and enhance the quality of longevity.

The other effect is to pry into a culture without being labeled as a Peeping-Tom.

One more thing:
Can you believe it -
ENABLING WORLD PEACE...


(It may also, reduce the chance to get Alzheimer's disease.)

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Feb. 10 (W), 2021 Post Gender-Sexuality






















Share Citizen Journalism #182: The Post-Sexuality/Gender

Zena LC Huang

This post #182, reminds me of around 2007, in one of my Diversity on-ground classes. When touching on the sexuality-gender topics, I shared several clips of the 1999 Oscar Awarded Movie: "Boys Don't Cry", to highlight the predicaments of being a non-binary of a real individual from Nebraska (the protagonist in the movie), the power of taken for granted sexuality/gender ideology in a specific society.

Well, you know what I want to say (C'mon man, please don't whine :), again!) here - teaching diversity classes is no less risky than walking through the landmines, particularly, in the Mid-west region, not just race/ethnicity, social class, languages, religions...etc.

Again, a small group of students felt offended due to their religious beliefs and reported to the school administrators (there are special websites set up to encourage students to report "what's going on" in the classroom, especially, later, during Walker's regime...etc.)

Well, you have to learn for enjoying such privileges, if not appreciating, that some Trumperesque or Walker-like learners in your classrooms that feed your brain with timing nutrients and make you stronger in balancing multi-dimensional arguments to alert the confirmation biases (both the educator and the learner) with great efforts...and then, mmm,...I need time to expand this thread into an article.

A pre-set good news in the conclusion will be this way - "Without any 'teaching capitals' other than the sizzling energy and passions for teaching, I survived, again," and ironically, being nominated to the excellent teaching awards - for 3 times (within a few years)!!

Also, there are some of my other old, yet never lacking "controversies' teaching materials at that time. Let me search my folders. If interested, stay tuned...


Friday, February 5, 2021

Feb. 5 (F), 2021 Topic: The lonely mask. One year ago today, the first novel coronavirus infected case was identified in Wisconsin (the 7th of the whole nation)...

 

        

                         







Title: The lonely Mask

What can be more disheartening and anger-provoking than foreseeing the impending tragedy unfolding in front of your eyes while not much you can do about it?
On the 26th of January 2020, Mary tried to select a proper word for her facebook posts about the fast-spreading, yet so novel, too invisible “Wuhan-viruses.”  “Outbreak, epidemic, or pandemic, which one?” An ominous inkling flowing through her subconsciousness, she picked “pandemic.” (See attached, a screen capture from facebook).


Since late January 2020, she religiously followed important news and several famous youtube channels of Taiwan, Japan, and S. Korea, regarding the development of the viruses. Though Mary was in the US, she vividly remembered how horrific the 2003 SARS was, originating from China and spreading over the neighboring countries. Taiwan, Mary’s native country, was the closest one to the viral epicenter, suffering 346 infected cases, the unprecedentedly dreadful 73 deaths, and an economic setback. Similar situations happened to the neighboring countries too.

A painful lesson learned, like most of the countries in Asia, today, amid the covid19 pandemic, Taiwan has been doing the best she can with 900 infected cases and 7 deaths as of the end of January 2021.

Last month, shocking news put the residents and the health care officials on high alert in Taiwan. It was because on December 22, 2020, a new infection ending a 255-day run without Local Transmission, underlining the challenges in controlling the virus even in areas where it has been largely stamped out.

Through daily absorbing information about the coronavirus, one event caught Mary’s attention. There were some youtube video clips smuggled out of China regarding the Mayor of Wuhan, on Jan 23, 2020, who declared a lockdown of the whole city which has 11 million residents.  However, on Jan 22, the news had been spread over the whole Hu Bei province. Several relevant videos showed thousands, thousands of crowded people panickily swamped into bus-train stations, airports, and any transportation hubs. From the hindsight understanding, one of the situations was associated with the date of Jan 25, which was the Lunar New Year, the most important holiday, equivalent to the Thanksgiving or Christmas Day in the US. 

Unofficial information was released that about five million of the Wuhan people, whether infected or not, escaping the lockdown, moving to more than 30 provinces and other countries.

The gigantic exodus initiated the politburo’s powerful iron-fist in controlling every aspect of the daily lives of the mass in China.  Among the exoduses, one video stood out. Mary hesitated to share on social media for fear of being labeled as “endorsing undemocratic, tyrannical, or uncivilized” treatments - the
“abhorred” taboos in the US.

It was about among the five million Exodusters that 600,000 got out of Wuhan to several countries, particularly, Italy, France, Spain, England, and the US. 

Some of those European countries are members of China’ grandiose “Belt and Road Initiative (
一帶一路).” A part of the international business liaisons and associates (about 10,000 Chinese) reside in Milan and its proximities. They were back and forth between Wuhan-n-other-provinces, and Italy's major cities for business’ sake, before, and during the outbreak.

Here is a video for reference (click and watch, if xenophile... https://www.youtube.com/embed/uY6cf4VAz3E?feature=oembed) regarding those 600,000 Exodusters.
(Note: Viewers' description is needed - further information, more research, and critical analysis are helpful for a better understanding.)
 
But where did the information come from?

Ya, the omnipower – technology.

Big data mining companies tracked down the traveling itineraries (based on flight tickets and cellphone messages) of the above 60,000 escapers from Wuhan right before the city lockdown.   The following picture captured from my blog on the above video, shows each red line referring to a trip of an individual from the epicenter, then to the hotspots, finally reaching all over the world. (For authenticity and further information, more research is needed.)

These types of surveillances are unbelievable and unacceptable in most part of the democratic countries.

Furthermore, a dilemma challenged Mary’s thoughts. To avoid reinforcing some negative stereotypes of certain groups of people, even though, China constantly imposing military threats on Taiwan, Mary decided not to post on facebook. Only a part of the information was briefly mentioned on her blogs. Moreover, some not well-acquainted facebook friends treated Mary as Chinese by her name and appearance.  Her status sandwiched among Taiwan, the US., and China makes her public expressions and presentations complicated. Many social media friends find that Mary tends to use unclear words or ambiguous expressions.

Coming to the point, Mary was in panics. The above information vividly recurred in her mind.  What happened on the map would be replicated in the US. – sooner, not later. Viewers might be skeptical or curious if the information was authentic, though, these panelists were highly respected professionals in Taiwan. The worst part of the story was that there were no whatsoever actions from the local, state to the federal government planned, organized, and enacted to deal with the fast-growing and spreading viruses!

Mary recalled the first infected case identified at a nursing facility in Kirkland, Washington, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus in February 2020. There, had about 27 of the 108 residents and 25 of the 180 staff with some symptoms. It was horrendously shocking and uneasy news to Mary, based on her understanding of this type of virus.

Meanwhile, Mary also read a small report about a Taiwanese-American health care worker who began wearing a facial mask to her work setting in Seattle after knowing the first confirmed case of the virus in the US traced back to January 21, 2020.  Upon arriving at her office, the co-worker showed friendly concerns, “Jenny, are you O.K.?”; “Jenny, caught the flu? “  Jenny suddenly found herself being a focal point in her office. Quickly pulling off her mask, she responded, “I am fine, thanks.” Then, her supervisor, being aware of what was going on, sympathetically talked to her, “Well, Jenny, if you do not feel well, it is O.K. to take a sick leave.  I can arrange a sub.”

Jenny, at this juncture was awkward. A premonition lingering in her mind, she felt the severity of this virus at the current stage of development.  It was common sense to wear masks, keep rigorous contact-tracking, tracing, quarantine (euphemized: social distancing), and follow the treatment protocols in most parts of Far-Eastern Asia. Due to the difficulties of wearing the mask and keeping social distancing… et cetera “odd” self-mandates, Jenny reluctantly decided to quit her job in February of 2020.  

After having read this news, Mary empathized with the whole dynamics that Jenny and her co-workers encountered. During February 2020, the roaring impeachment overshadowed everything except a narcissist’s wielding the apocalyptic power.  Mary could see the fermenting, sprawling, and spreading viruses everywhere, yet no significant measures to stop this pending massacre could be found.

Then, the expected looming omen of Mary finally happened. On February 5, Wisconsin identified the first infected case (the 7th of the whole nation). According to the news, the UW hospital checked the patient and then asked this person to self-quarantine at home. At that moment Mary could not believe what she read. Shocked by the flaws, a series of questions popped into her mind, “Did the doctors and nurses have the standard anti-virus masks, multiple-layered gloves, lab coats and the rest of personal protective equipment (PPE), protective scrubs on, and the testing procedures following the required anti-virus protocols?”.  

Thinking of these issues, another bunch of practices appeared in her mind. The videos Mary watched from Taiwan these days, such as constructing the individual case history of the infected, contact-tracing and tracking, regular checking and follow-ups through the health care personnel, and the necessary medical treatments. The whole set of anti-viral protocols needed to be done gingerly. Inevitably, Mary was skeptical, “Did the patient comply with the rule without spreading into a community contagious scenario?” “What about the aircraft, cars, or public transportation systems, friends, and folks this person contacted?”

Now, many people know how severe penalty or punishment is to the people who violate the anti-viral protocols in several Asian countries. Being called – “tyrannical”, “undemocratic”, or even “uncivilized” turns into an ambivalent, oxymoronic sentiment of being effective and repressive simultaneously in terms of saving lives.  Who could have imagined, in the mid-summer and later, the theatrical turbulence coming into scenes in the whole US. one tragedy after another besieged by the intersectional complexities of race, class, politicians' gaming, and playing the constitution, particularly, the 1st and the 2nd Amendments under an incoordinate political Federal-State dual system without the leadership and accountabilities. One of the potentially ominous scenarios was that each complex social disorder might repeat approximately "50" times! Mary wished that things would not have had to happen that way.


During the mid-February 2020, Mary also read some timing reports released from Lancet, a well-reviewed medical journal. One of them indicated that the virus could mutate quickly, and the incubation period could last more than 24 days. 14 days’ quarantine is a minimum requirement, and some supercarriers show no symptoms!! These were not “confirmation biases!”

The other important information was about R0, pronounced “R naught.” It is a mathematical term, indicating how contagious an infectious disease is. It’s also referred to as the reproduction number. As infection is transmitted to new people, it reproduces itself.[1]

Such as in 1918, the worldwide outbreak of the swine flu killed 50 million people. According to a review article published in BMC Medicine,[2] the R0 value of the 1918 pandemic was estimated to be between 1.4 and 2.8. The swine flu, or H1N1 virus, came back in 2009, its R0 value was between 1.4 and 1.6.

What about the R0 of the novel coronavirus (later, COVID19)?

It was shocking! The R0 for COVID-19 is a median of 5.7, according to a study published online in Emerging Infectious Diseases. That’s about double an earlier R0 estimate of 2.2 to 2.7. The 5.7 means that one person with COVID-19 can potentially transmit the coronavirus to 5 to 6 people, rather than the 2 to 3 researchers originally thought.[3]

Furthermore, believe it or not, in the early spring of 2020, several mathematical models predicted that 1/4 to 1/2 of the world population would get infected and death tolls could reach several million. Surely, these “crazy guessing games” would make most people “laugh it off” at that time.

With the information in mind, Mary had even more questions regarding the WI case. Nevertheless, she was not sure of herself, “When teaching, how important to follow FERPA to protect students’ identifiable information.  Not to mention the personal medical confidentiality, like HIPAA.”  Having thought so, Mary still, unconsciously, had a desire if she could have known the locale of this person, particularly, the community and activities this individual involved.  

“What can I do? Sitting there to see what happened in China, Japan, S. Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and the rest to, recur, here?!” Mary decided to do one thing she was good at:  starting her short whistle-blowing career on social media platforms. She could feel the “carefree”, “Don’t worry. Be happy” sentiments of the general population.  However, Mary, as a non-Caucasian in this homogenous region, had to be careful not to be quickly labeled as a “fearmonger.”

 “Is the lesson-learned-experience transferrable to reduce, if not avoid, the foreseeable catastrophes in the US.?” Mary asked herself constantly since the first case of infection was identified. Surely, today, from the hindsight conditions, things were not so simple as they emerged during the first quarter of 2020.  Anyway, Mary also started documenting major events in late January 2020 on her blog
https://ci8395.blogspot.com/p/coronavirus.html as a witness of what happened during the pandemic.

Then, the aforenoted Jenny in Washington State, whom Mary sympathized with, a month later, she faced a similar situation in Wisconsin.

Since the first infected case happened in Madison on February 5, Mary started worrying about the paradise-like Wisconsin.  

One day in early March, Mary had to visit a local hospital. Luckily "owning" a box of standard N95 facemasks mailed from her sister in Taiwan, Mary dared not to wear one, though. 
In this region, seemingly wearing/having one was a mysterious "taboo,” - at that time.

Regarding the mini-PPEs items mailed to me from my sister, here is a short story. To live, or not to live, that is the question!! With the nice civil liberties not infringed, things still could be done to contain and medical intervene against the pandemics.   Upon knowing the Wuhan virus In late January 2020, Taiwan revised the anti-viral protocols, rules-n-regulations; organizes the medical personnel, and stockpiles PPEs, facial masks, ventilators, as well as the rest of the anti-viral materials and resources.

To prevent the facial mask from panics, hoarding, and price gauging, the Taiwanese government created a ration-distributing system, free for all residents based on the ID of each household.

Back to the hospital visit event. 
Mary prepared the mask in her pocket.  During the check-in, a lady (Caucasian, yes, 98% of the population) in the neighboring lane was severely coughing while the registration personnel faced these coughing droplets as calmly as usual. That scene shocked Mary tremendously. She pulled out her mask and wore it immediately yet reluctantly. Meanwhile, the whole atmosphere of the Hall was changed: here, the only daredevil with a mask.

Mary sat down at a corner near two visitors. Suddenly, these two stood up and left quickly. Other passers-by just stared at Mary who innocently told one of the starers: "I am fine, just for self-protection."  But who believed whom for what?

Later, Mary (still with the mask on), before leaving the hospital, courageously chatted with a brave RN:
"Ms. xxx, I am healthy. Do not be panic. Please do not feel offended that I dare to talk to you. I just want to suggest: Can the hospital offer those front-line Registration Associates with facial Masks, in addition to other preventative measures of your hospital?" The surprised RN, with a little bit of confusion, replied to Mary, “I will talk to my supervisors. Thanks."

Mary wore the mask when shopping. The whole grocery store, she was the only one doing so - in early March. The cashiers mainly were students from the local university.  Mary taught there as an adjunct before. The idea of self-protection and projecting-others seemed too novel to be feasible at that time for the students, too.

Mary told herself, “I wish I had boxes, boxes of facial masks to donate, like, now the Taiwanese government's doing to aid the countries in need of them. But what else can I do? “
Then an urge popped up, “I needed to write to the manager.”

Upon arriving home, Mary found the store’s service website. Then she sent the following message to whom it may concern:

" Dear Manager,

I am a long-term customer of your store. I appreciate your associates' high-quality service. 

Today I stopped by to purchase some food items and found none of your service staff having a facial mask on while doing busy work.  They are the frontline soldiers running the risk with the high probability to contract the Novel Coronavirus for serving our residents. 

Now our state has more than 2000 positive cases and 57 death tolls.
Our neighboring states, Michigan and Illinois are the new hotspots.
This type of new virus can incubate for a long time, even some people contracted the viruses and don’t show the symptoms.  That’s one of the main reasons for many people who become severely ill and die after tested with positive, because the viruses being discovered too late is a major factor!

I salute all of you! 

But I am wondering if there is any way that your company can purchase N95 masks for the working associates?

Be safe.

Sincerely, Xena Crystal "


Attached below was the store’s service website where Mary submitted her suggestion:

Mary did not expect to get any responses. But she still tried one more time.  Perhaps, the non-reply is default at that time

It was understandable. Masks, were “too novel” in March 2020. Later, they turned into “too political” which was beyond Mary’s imagination.

(Note: I came back to re-read this article and added (in February 2021)
, "Now the masks' status has been changed. They turn into hot commercial products of many designers and speculators.)