Kent Ninomiya - Asian American issues

Kent Ninomiya - Happy Lunar New Year everyone! All around the world there are celebrations with feasts, fireworks and dancing dragons. It's a time for Asian families and familes of Asian decent to get together and revel in the new year. It is Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day all wrapped into one in asian culture. It's often called "Chinese New Year," but this isn't particularly accurate. While it is widely observed in China, it is also an important holiday for people throughout East Asia and of Asian ancestry all over the world. Believe it or not, there are still people out there who do not realize all Asian people are NOT Chinese. Lunar New Year is also a more accurate term. The holiday usually begins on the first day of the first lunar month. This makes the lunar calendar much more accurate than the Julian calendar. Jokes are often made about the Chinese being backward for celebrating the new year late. In reality the west celebrates the new year early. While the traditional Chinese calendar does not record continuously numbered years, 2008 is considered year 4705. So happy 4705 everyone! Kent Ninomiya

Kent Ninomiya - We are in the midst of an era of hypersensitivity over slips of the tongue and cultural issues. First there was the suspension of Kelly Tilghman for joking that Tiger Woods should be "lynched." Then it was ESPN's Dana Jacobson suspended for comments about Notre Dame and Jesus at a roast. Now it's CNN's Kyra Phillips coming under fire.

She was in a discussion with Gerri Willis and co-anchor. Willis joked that if she could predict the stock market, she and Phillips could run off to an island, prompting Phillips' , to ask not to be left out of the girls' getaway. This resulted in the following exchange:Gerri: Alright Don, you come too.Kyra: We could bring him along with the girls. Gerri: Come on!Kyra: He's paying! Thanks, Gerri.Don: A little sandwich!Kyra: Ooh!Gerri: Whoa, I have to go now!Kyra: Yeah, good time. You don't want to talk about the reverse oreo!

If you watch this exchange (you can find it easily on the internet) you will see that it's innocent banter. No one there was offended. However the hypersensitive among us could make this out to be racial insensitivity, sexual insensitivity or both. I would not be surprised if there are calls for suspensions. That seems to be in vogue these days.

I argue that cultural sensitivity is not the same as racial blindness. Pretending that we don't see that people are different is hypacritical. We should acknowledge and embrace these differences as what makes our American culture great. When someone makes a comment that is warmly greeted by the people they are addressing, it is not up to third parties to be gravely insulted. I believe that to be the case here with CNN. It's a bit different in the Jacobson and Tilghman cases since their comments were not so innocent, but I still think people over reacted. We have better things to do than micro manage every word people on TV say. Kent Ninomiya

Kent Ninomiya - Michael Chang is elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. This is a big moment for Asian American athletes. It validates the landmark career of this amazing athlete. Chang was just 17 years old when he won the 1989 French Open. He is still the youngest male player to win a Grand Slam title. Chang was also the first U.S. champion at the clay-court Grand Slam since Tony Trabert in 1955. It was an amazing thing to watch. He was so exhasted during his five-set upset of number 1 seed Ivan Lendl that he had to serve underhanded. Still he beat the best player in the world at the time and went on to defeat Stefan Edberg in the final. He never won another Grand Slam but finished runner-up three times at Grand Slam tournaments and won 34 singles titles. Chang reached a number 2 ranking in 1996. Not bad for a kid who was just 5'9" and 160 pounds. In an era when male tennis players were huge and dominated with power, Chang got it done with hustle and heart. Just like Tiger Woods with golf, Michael Chang inspired a generation of Asian American kids to enter the world of competitive tennis. Congratulations Michael, you deserve the honor. Kent Ninomiya

Kent Ninomiya - Asian financial markets are making it clear that they fear the economic crisis in the United States will spread world wide. Today Japan's Nikkei 225 index dropped 5.1 percent after falling 3.9 percent Monday. They stopped trading in India when the Sensex index free fell 9.75 percent in the first few minutes. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shrank 8 percent after diving 5.5 percent the day before. The same is happening in the rest of the world. In Europe Monday, Britain's FTSE-100 fell 5.5 percent and France's CAC-40 Index slid 6.8 percent. Germany's blue-chip DAX 30 plunged 7.2 percent. Likewise, benchmark indices in China, South Korea and Singapore each fell at least 4 percent. Australia's benchmark index slid 7.1 percent and Indonesia's market was down 9 percent. The pain is expected to come full circle. American stocks will probably fall even more leading to more selling around the world resulting in a planetary economic slowdown.

So what is this we are facing? Is it just another economic swing or something much bigger? Ask 100 economists and you will get 100 answers. Here's my take on it. We are realizing that everything in our world is interconnected. The war on terrorism, the war in Iraq, our unpopularity overseas all have economic components. We are spending a whole lot of money to support our agenda around the world. The United States is a rich nation but we have a finite amount of money. This is all catching up to us and there will be a reckoning. Most Americans alive today are too young to remember truly difficult times. 9-11 was certainly a crisis but it didn't impact most of our lives directly. Most of us don't believe we face something of the magnitude of the Great Depression or a World War. The truth is we can and may. Our economy, security and environment are more fragile than we know. We may soon find out just how fragile. Kent Ninomiya

Kent Ninomiya - K.J Choi muscled out consistant play to lead every round of the Sony Open and take home the title. He's only the third player to lead all the rounds. More importantly, Choi raises the profile of the Asian athlete. Choi has become a familiar face on the tour. His consistant play earned him a top 5 finish in the inaugural FedEx Cup. The power of role models can not be overstated. Tiger Woods proved that. Choi is quickly becoming another one. Kent Ninomiya

Kent Ninomiya - How young is too young to being martial arts training? I started my studies at 5 years old. In fact I don't remember a time I didn't train. It was as part of my life as breathing. I wanted the same for my children so enrolled them when they were very young. What I didn't realize is that their ability to learn is extremely limited at that age. While watching them I realized that my recollection of that time in my life was probably drastically different than they way it really was. 5 year olds don't have very long attention spans. They are also in the early stages of developing their coordination. As a result they fall down a lot and lose focus. I had to get a hold of myself and realize that my children will not be proficient in the martial arts for many years. The best lesson young children can learn from martial arts is discipline and attention to teacher and detail. If that is the lesson you want them to learn then starting them at 5 or 6 years old is fine. The physical skills will come later. By the way those are not my children in that picture. Kent Ninomiya

Kent Ninomiya - Take a look at the leader board at the Sony Open. K.J. Choi is the big story. He is leading thanks to his amazing 5 under 65. It's a monumental turn around from his last place finish among the 31 winners at Kapalua for the Mercedes-Benz Championship seven days ago. He leads Kevin Na by two strokes. Another big story is Tadd Fujikawa. Last year he became the youngest player in 50 years to make the cut on the PGA Tour. The 17-year-old from Honolulu failed to make the cut this time but he's the focus of attention whenever he plays just like Michelle Wie and Tiger Woods. Do you notice anything about the names? Every one of them if Asian or of Asian ancestry. Tiger is the undisputed face of Golf yet many don't realize that he is more Asian than he is black. Asian athletes are moving to the forefront of American athletics. Gone are the days of the meek Asian stereotype. Baseball is full of Asian stars like Ichiro. Basketball has Yao Ming. Football has Hines Ward. The list goes on and on in sports ranging from tennis to figure skating to soccer to hockey. It's good for the future of sports to have role models of every color. It inspires young athletes to strive for their dreams. These pioneers represent far more than they know. They are like Jackie Robinson breaking down barriers both real and imagined. Kent Ninomiya