Graduation Speakers

Graduation Speakers

My latest editorial on Ka Leo

http://www.kaleo.org/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/08/12/411af58193e96

Commencement speakers should encourage, not rant
By Pablo Wegesend
Ka Leo Staff Columnist
August 12, 2004
love to attend graduation ceremonies.

I love them because they celebrate a happy occasion. The graduates are proud about their recent accomplishments! Their families and friends are proud!

I love to attend graduation ceremonies, because I get a chance to say goodbye to someone I might not see again for a while.

I love graduation ceremonies because they promote school pride for its new alumni, old alumni, current students and future students in attendance.

I love graduation ceremonies because sometimes in the audience I see someone who I haven't seen in a long time.

However, there is a negative trend at college graduation ceremonies. That trend is having guest speakers talking about things which are off-topic.

You see, graduation ceremonies are supposed to be about praising the new graduates and giving them some advice for the future. But what some past UH graduation guest speakers have done is talk about topics unrelated to graduation.

In the most recent graduation ceremony--Spring 2004, the guest speakers spent a minute or two denouncing America's "arrogant foreign policy".

In a graduation ceremony last year, a guest speaker criticized the military use of Hawai'i lands for training. And in another ceremony, a guest speaker criticized the "with us or against us" rhetoric of the Bush Administration.

And President Bush himself talked in some mainland universities about his faith-based programs, economic policy and the war on Iraq.

Graduation ceremonies are NOT times to talk about foreign policy, military policy, economic policy or anything else political. Want to talk about politics or foreign policy? Do it somewhere else!

So those political rants were only for a minute or two. I say that's a few minutes too long. There should ZERO political rants. Not for one second.

Some say that politics and foreign policy are too important to ignore at graduation ceremonies. Nonsense.

What else is next? Spend time in political science talking about auto mechanics? Talk about agriculture during an accounting class? Or discuss ocean ecology in fashion design?

Do you want your waiter to talk about abortion policy? No, you want the waiter to get your food and drinks. The waiter's view on abortion is irrelevant when I'm waiting for my food. Do you want the firefighters to talk about the war on Iraq when your house is burning? No, you want them to put an end to the fire. I could care less about their views on the war on Iraq, as long as my home is saved from the fire.

So, my take on political rants during graduation speeches has nothing to do with importance. It has to do with appropriateness. And while politics, agriculture, ecology, auto mechanics, foreign policy and birth control are important, discussions about them should take place in the appropriate forum.

Asian-Polynesian relations
Today, my latest editorial has been posted on www.hawaiireporter.com on the ignored conflict between immigrant Asians and Polynesians at many Honolulu high schools.

If you have any comments, please dont hesitate to contact me at madtiger99@yahoo.com

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?288cd50e-90e7-4f02-a858-413e44584dfa

The Ignored Inter-Racial Conflict
A Fresh Perspective - Aug. 6, 2004
By Pablo Wegesend, 8/6/2004 1:41:11 AM
Whenever there is a discussion about race relations in Hawaii, it is about either 1) Hawaii as a melting pot, where every gets along and inter-racial marriages are common, 2) the white landowners stole Native Hawaiian land and later exploited Japanese and Filipino plantation workers or 3) Caucasians getting harassed, mocked, bullied and even assaulted by Native Hawaiians.

But there is a rarely discussed inter-racial conflict in Hawaii. It is the conflict between immigrant Asians and Polynesians.

This has greater significance in Honolulu schools than non-Honolulu schools.
You see, in most of Hawaii, most Asians are local and have adapted to local culture. In suburban Oahu and in the Neighbor Islands, a lot of Asians and Native Hawaiians speak pidgin, wear surf shorts, tank tops, and love the beach. They share a common local culture.

I ask my fellow UH students who come from suburban/rural Oahu and the Neighbor Islands about ethnic relations at their high school, they told me everyone gets along.
In many Honolulu high schools, however, things are different. At McKinley High School (my alma mater) as well as Farrington, and Kaimuki, a large portion of Asians there are recent immigrants from Vietnam, Philippines, China and Korea. Also in those schools are recent immigrants from Micronesia as well Samoans and Tongans, many of whom are living in public housing like Kuhio Park Terrace, Mayor Wright Housing Palolo Valley Housing, Kalihi Valley Housing, etc.

In the 1990s', there were fights between Filipinos and Samoans at Farrington High School, and fights between Vietnamese and Samoans at McKinley. The specific incidents that started the fight, I don't know.

But I have witnessed other evidence of this racial conflict. Being that I'm neither Asian nor Polynesian, I get to hear what Asians think of Polynesians and vice versa.
When riding the School Street bus, I heard some Polynesian kids from public housing mocking the Filipino and Chinese languages. There were elderly Asian people in those buses who ignored the mockery.

I heard Asians from my high school express hatred of Polynesians. They said they were bullied by Polynesian kids. They made racist jokes about Polynesian culture. They view Polynesians as ignorant bullies. Most of the Asians expressing these thoughts were either immigrants or from immigrant families.

This is a very serious issue that can lead to bigger conflicts if they are not addressed. Yet it is almost never discussed in the major newspapers, nor are they widely discussed in academic circles. 

I am assuming that most in the mainstream Hawaii media are clueless on this issue. After all, there do not seem to be many Vietnamese, Micronesians, Samoans, Tongans or immigrant Filipinos working in the local newspapers. It seems that most of the people in the local media are either 1) Caucasians from the mainland, 2)Local Caucasians from middle class areas like Hawaii Kai or Kailua or 3) local Asians from suburban Oahu! Most likely, they went to private school. If they went to public school, it's probably not McKinley, Farrington or Kaimuki.

With those circumstances, it's likely that the media people have not witnessed any race conflicts that I have been discussing, and therefore is not something on their mind.

As for academia, in the one ethnic studies course I took at UH, NOTHING was mentioned about conflicts between Polynesians and immigrant Asians! Same with that one sociology course on ethnicity. All that those classes discussed were the hardships Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, Asians and Hawaiians faced from the White Man!

Nothing about how much people from those groups accomplish! Nothing about European immigrants. Almost nothing about blacks looting Korean stores in the LA riots, and NOTHING about Samoans fighting with immigrant Asians in Hawaii! Too many professors teach ethnic relations courses with the assumption that the only race conflict worth analyzing is white persecution of the non-white. They forget that their job is to look at the whole picture.

It is time for all, including professors and news people, to address the facts and the truth.

Check out

http://www.grassrootinstitute.org/

www.hawaiireporter.com

The Conventions

The last week's Democrat Convention had it's moments, with John Kerry's speech (all about his military service, and very little about his ultra-liberal voting record) and Barak Obama's moderate speech calling for unity.

Some say that the Democrats are making themselves look more moderate than they really during the convention.

The Republicans will do the same in their convention. They'll have famous moderates like Arnold (the Terminator and Cali governor), Rudy Guliani and NY gov George Pataki on prime time but not radical right wingers like Tom DeLay, Rick Santorium and Jerry Falwell!

Neither of the major parties wants to show it's more extremist side now that they'll need the centrist voters to bring them victory!

News from Iraq

The bombing of Iraqi Christian churches by Radical Muslims prove that the Radical Islams aren't just against Israel and the US (which is what the Euro-lefties want you to think) but also willing to terrorize Third World non-whites NON-MUSLIMS as well. It's all about Islamic World Order! Anyone who doesn't go along with it (white, non-white, rich, poor, etc) will be killed!

Anti-development hypocrites

I am so  sick and tired of hearing a bunch of whiners who CHOSE to live in remote area whining and bitching about new housing being built! Especially the whiners who moved into Makakilo, Mililani, Kapolei and parts of Maui and Big Island! Especially since they moved there a decade or more ago, KNOWING that more developments are on the way, yet they bitch  that more people are moving next door to them.  Why dont those whiners live in a friggin cave already!

And who are those whiners?

Check out

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Jul/26/ln/ln08a.html

They KNOW that Kapolei, Makakilo, etc are FAR from Honolulu, yet they CHOOSE to move there, and they bitch about traffic jams! If you dont like traffic jams, they should just SHUT UP and move to Honolulu.  And who the fuck are they to tell people they can't move in a few blocks from their homes?! Or are they just worried that their property values are going down!

In Honolulu, I dont need a friggin car! I can just take a bus, ride a bike or walk to wherever I'm going! Everything is nearby! I might never own a home in this city with the $$$$ I got, but at least I don't have to put up with traffic jams! At least I chose a route of sanity here!

Thomas Sowell- Delusional on Immigration

On most issues - economics, affirmative discrimination, environmentalism, education - Thomas Sowell is a good voice for reason. However, on immigration, he is very hysterical, using plenty of half-truths! I wonder if he had a bad experience with immigrants. Anyways, let's go over some half-truths of Thomas Sowell's latest editorial!

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39478

Sowell said:

At a soccer match between Mexico and the United States a few years ago, the stands were full of Mexican flags. The fans booed when "The Star-Spangled Banner" was played and those few fans who raised American flags were pelted with debris, as were the American soccer players.

This would have been rotten behavior if it had taken place in Mexico City. But it took place in Los Angeles. So it's scary.

I reply : Sowell wants you to think the only reason that soccer game incident happened was because there are tons of Mexicans in L.A. But what Sowell DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW is that the main reason for the pro-Mexican bias at the Rose Bowl soccer game is that Mexicans are MEGA-PASSIONATE about soccer, while Native-Born Americans are MEGA-APATHETIC about soccer. In fact, many American sports editorialists viciously mock the game of soccer. You won't find any of that in Mexican sports pages.

But let's imagine, if instead of soccer, its US vs Mexico playing BASKETBALL at Staples Center (also in LA). Do you think the scenario Sowell mentioned would've happened?

I dont think so!

You see, Native-Born Americans are MEGA-PASSIONATE about basketball, while the Mexicans tend to be APATHETIC about basketball! The US fans would outnumber Mexico fans even in LA. Especially since the African American community really loves it's basketball, but tend to be less enthusiastic  about soccer!

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Sowell said:
From the way many discussions of immigration are conducted, you might never dream that we are talking about the permanent alteration of the American people and the American culture.

I reply:
Actually, a permanent alteration of the American people and the American culture has already happened! It's called EUROPEAN MIGRATION into what is now the U.S. But the Native Americans didn't have a sophisticated Border Patrol or Coast Guard to keep those Europeans out! That is why it's A BIG FUCKIN JOKE when white Americans whine about illegal immigration as if white Americans enter Native American territory legally!

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Sowell said:
In California, illegal immigrants not only go to the state universities, they pay lower tuition than American students who are from other states.

I reply:
What Sowell doesn't want you to think about is the fact that some illegal aliens applying to California colleges came to the US when they were kids. So why did they illegally come to the US as kids. Because their parents FORCED them to come - DUH! After all, parents have ultimate control of the household, and if they feel like bringing the kids to the US, it'll happen, not giving a dam if the kids would be traumatized about leaving the homeland against their will!

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Sowell said:
The argument that immigrants "take jobs that other Americans don't want" leaves out the crucial factor of pay. If legal or illegal immigrants came here and worked as journalists or college professors at half the pay that American journalists or college professors receive, the intelligentsia would probably have no trouble seeing the fallacy in what they are saying.

I reply:
This is the biggest two-faced idiocy of many conservatives. While they whine and bitch against the entitlement mentality and victimhood, they demand that Native-Born Americans feel entitled to a job, and they demand that Native-Born Americans act like victims when someone hired an immigrant!

So what, if I own a restaurant, should I knock on the door of every Native-Born American in the hood to fulfill a quota, just so the anti-immigration fanatics will just shut up about immigrants getting hired, even though the immigrants are the ones who actually apply for the jobs in the 1st place. If the majority of native-Born Americans in my hood think restaurant work is "sucker job", while immigrants from the Phillipines, Micronesia, Latin America, etc are the ones applying, then YOU'RE DAM FUCKING RIGHT THAT MOST OF THE PEOPLE HIRED WILL BE IMMIGRANTS! You don't apply, you wont get hired!

And talking about price, I guess Sowell doesn't mind paying $50 for a salad, $70 for a sandwich, etc, but if hiring immigrants will keep the prices from being that, I say open the gates some more!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA

As of today, the USA is 228 years old! Congratulations for a long life as an independent democratic nation!