Starting to adjust to empty and (relatively) clean streets in America! After living in Asia for the past decade, seeing an empty street like this at any time of the day makes you think for a second that something terrible has happened!

Even though I’ve lived in China for 9 years, I’ve never actually been in China on THE eve of Chinese New Year.  I can hardly describe what I just experienced!

All I can say is this, China just re-did that famous scene from Crocodile Dundee where he pulls out his huge knife and says “That’s not a knife, THIS is a knife!”  China just said, “Those aren’t fireworks, THESE are fireworks!”

According to figures from the U.K. government, obtained by the Sun under the United Kingdom’s Freedom of Information Act, the number of kids under 15 injured while climbing trees, skateboarding, and the like has fallen.

Does this mean that children have become more athletic or less accident-prone? Does it mean they have perfected their tree-climbing and skateboarding skills?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oskay/

No, it seems that they are simply staying indoors more, glued to their screens like rubberneckers to an overturned truck. You see, the same figures revealed that injuries from playing video games have gone up 60 percent since 2002.

Severely pained thumbs appear to be the main cause of kids’ visits to emergency rooms in the United Kingdom. And one can only wonder if the U.K. hospital system has developed special methods for massaging thumbs so that they can retake their rightful place in the World of Warcraft.

Perhaps soon special video game physiotherapy clinics will open, with doctors in frightening headgear making kids feel at home, even when they are away from their own frightening games.

I think that it could be big business. Soon, perhaps, your health insurance might have special coverage for acts of Warcraft, just as it has for acts of God.

by Chris Matyszczyk

We’ve been in the planning stages for the past month or so with the first class set to begin the second week in October.  I have no idea how many students I’ll have or what the level of English I’ll be dealing with… it should be fun!

I went to the Yueyang Tower (岳阳楼) with my family yesterday and to say it was ‘crowded’ would be a huge understatement. The attention the kids received was very overwhelming for them (and for us!)

The kids did have fun feeding these fish who were having a ‘frenzy’ of their own.

Medill News Service reports that the Internet has become an out-of-control habit for more and more people. In fact, experts say that Internet addiction is a growing psychological and behavioral problem.

It’s estimated that 5% to 10% of Americans may be addicted to the Internet – that could mean as many as 30 million people. And, it’s an even bigger problem in other parts of the world. As many as 30% of the people living in China, Korea and Taiwan may be hooked.

Sounds like ‘quackery‘ to me. An additional revenue source for psychologist who make their living convincing wealthy people they are sick in one way or the other and that they can get better by coughing up some cash and sitting through some ‘sessions.’

I don’t deny that some folks may have issues, my guess though is that it’s a problem that goes deeper than “the internet.”  

The percentages don’t even make sense.  The report from ‘experts’ say that “30% of the people in China” are suffering from internet addiction…  Based on the number of people in China who use the internet (38% according to the Pew Research Center), that would mean just about every person who uses the internet in China is also addicted to it…  I don’t think so.

I guess with $4 dollar gas, everyone has to find new ways to get by.  Airlines do this by charging for things you thought you already had paid for, it seems psychologists do this by inventing new ‘illnesses.’

The Worlds Population was estimated at 4.4 billion.

The first first ever Cellular Mobile Phone was introduced.

Space Invaders appeared in arcades.

Average Income per year $17,000.00

• Cost of a gallon of Gas 63 cents
• Dozen Eggs 48 Cents

After nearly 30 years The Volkswagen Beetle stops production having manufactured 20 million cars

Lesley Brown gave birth to the world’s first test tube baby delivered by Cesarean section in Oldham, England. Dr. Patrick Steptoe and Dr. Robert Edwards developed the process to conceive a child in a laboratory and then plant in a uterus to develop normally.

The introduction of bottled water was a big story as very few thought there was much chance of people buying in large quantities.

The comic strip character, Garfield, first appeared.

In the Movie Theaters:  Greece, Saturday Night Fever and Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Popular Musicians

• Bee Gees with ” Night Fever and Stayin Alive “
• Paul McCartney and Wings
• John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John
• Rolling Stones
• Commodores with ” Three Times a Lady “
• Boomtown Rats

The TV show “Dallas” premiers on CBS.

Popular TV Programs

• Happy Days
• Little House on the Prairie
• The Rockford Files
• Good Morning America
• Saturday Night Live
• Wheel of Fortune
• Charlie’s Angels
• Quincy, M.E.
• The Muppet Show
• CHiPs
• The Love Boat
• Three’s Company

and…

Our very own Erica came into this world on July 20th, 1978!  Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

1978 from Steve Webel on Vimeo.

I know your trying to not take it too hard… You’ll be fine!

“A third culture kid is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside their parents’ culture. The third culture kid builds relationships to all the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the third culture kid’s life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of the same background, other TCKs.”

What is the Origin of term “Third Culture Kid”?

Sociologist Ruth Hill Useem coined the term “Third Culture Kids” after spending a year on two separate occasions in India with her three children, in the early fifties. Initially they used the term “third culture” to refer to the process of learning how to relate to another culture;  in time they started to refer to children who accompany their parents into a different culture as “Third Culture Kids.” Useem used the term “Third Culture Kids” because TCKs integrate aspects of their birth culture (the first culture) and the new culture (the second culture), creating a unique “third culture”

What are the Characteristics of TCKs?

There are different characteristics that impact the typical Third Culture Kid:

• TCKs are 4 times as likely as non-TCKs to earn a bachelor’s degree (81% vs 21%)
• 40% earn an advanced degree (as compared to 5% of the non-TCK population.)
• 45% of TCKs attended 3 universities before earning a degree.
• 44% earned undergraduate degree after the age of 22.
• Educators, medicine, professional positions, and self employment are the most common professions for TCKs.
• TCKs are unlikely to work for big business, government, or follow their parents’ career choices. “One won’t find many TCKs in large corporations.
• 90% feel “out of sync” with their peers.
• 90% report feeling as if they understand other cultures/peoples better than the average American.
• 80% believe they can get along with anybody.
• Divorce rates among TCKs are lower than the general population, but they marry older (25+).
• Military brats, however, tend to marry earlier.
• Linguistically adept (not as true for military TCKs.)
  • A study whose subjects were all “career military brats”—those who had a parent in the military from birth through high school—shows that brats are linguistically adept.
• Teenage TCKs are more mature than non-TCKs, but ironically take longer to “grow up” in their 20s.
• More welcoming of others into their community.
• Lack a sense of “where home is” but often nationalistic.
• Some studies show a desire to “settle down” others a “restlessness to move”.
• Depression and suicide are more prominent among TCK’s.

Some especially bold people try to grab them pick them up or pose them for their camera phone photo shoot.  (They don’t like that AT ALL!  fyi)

Take a look;

 
A Night At The Square from Steve Webel on Vimeo.

We are trying to help the kids navigate this very difficult situation.  It’s stressful for them to get so much attention, but it’s a reality of our life in China.  The only way to avoid it would be to make the kids into hermits and keep them in our house during normal waking hours.  (That’s not gonna fly!)

For now, the tactic is to try to always keep moving, never stop in any one place for very long.  With exceptionally ‘bold’ people, we might have a word or two with them about giving the kids their space.

I do have to say, by and large, most people here respect us and our kids immensely and treat us with nothing but extreme politeness and hospitality.  These people almost all have less than we do (worldly wealth wise), yet they would give us anything if they thought it would help.

It’s one of those realities we face because we live where we do.  Please remember our three kids (TCK’s) in your prayers, ask that this difficult cultural reality will be used as a positive in their lives and will not turn them off to the Chinese people.

Dog meat off Olympic menu in Beijing

BEIJING, China (AP) – Canine cuisine is being sent to the doghouse during next month’s Beijing Olympic Games.

Dog meat has been struck from the menus of officially designated Olympic restaurants, and Beijing tourism officials are telling other outlets to discourage consumers from ordering dishes made from dogs, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

Waiters and waitresses should “patiently” suggest other options to diners who order dog, it said, quoting city tourism bureau Vice Director Xiong Yumei.

Dog, known in Chinese as “xiangrou,” or “fragrant meat,” is eaten by some Chinese for its purported health-giving qualities.

Beijing isn’t the first Olympic host to slap a ban on the dish.

South Korea banned dog meat during the 1988 Seoul Olympics by invoking a law prohibiting the sale of “foods deemed unsightly.” After the Olympics, the ban was not strictly enforced.

Dog meat is also eaten in some other Asian countries, including Vietnam, the Philippines and Laos. 

It is somewhat of a moot point since Chinese don’t eat dog meat in the summer time.  (It’s a winter time delicacy – the ‘warming of the body’ is probably one of the “health-giving qualities” referred to in the article.)  Maybe that’s why there doesn’t seem to be much ‘push back’ on this from official Chinese channels.

It does seem like a shame though.  A 5,000 year old culture is having a traditional dish taken off the menu because outsiders don’t ‘approve’.  What’s so different about “xianrou” compared to any other kind of meat?  Is ‘cruelty’ defined by how ‘cute’ the animal is?

Although I’m not a fan of dog meat (yes, I’ve tried it.  woof!)  I find myself bothered that this traditional piece of Chinese cultural cuisine is being taken away because ‘outsiders’ don’t approve.  

Go get your own Olympics an serve nothing but tofu…

What do you guys think?

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