I hate Whites who make fun of Asian eyes

I'm usually not someone who'd like to blow things out of proportion and make a big thing out of nothing, well, at least that's what I think. But I'm gonna use a seemingly insignificant incident to highlight a bigger issue.
Yesterday I've read that the popular American country singer Toby Keith made a silly gesture at a concert in Norway, pulling his eyes back (making his eyes almond-shaped) when hearing the lyircs "yellow" (which stands here for the yellow [East and South East Asian] race.
You can check the video here, the gesture is at 0.24. As usual in America, there will be a group, who will protest immediately, in this case it was Asian American Justice Center, who said:

"Toby Keith embarrassed himself and his country, denigrated the Noble Peace Prize and offended Asians and Asian Americans by using a crude, racist hand gesture." [source]

First I thought: Wow, what was that? Let me see! Then I checked the video and saw that half-second long gesture and thought: Give me a break, that's what all the fuss was about? I'm always very outspoken when it comes to racism (I hate racists!), but saying it was a crude, racist hand gesture goes too far in my opinion. In Keith's case, I certainly wouldn't go that far.

But there were other instances where I wasn't really amused. The photo on the left supposedly shows Joe Jonas from the Jonas Brothers and on the right is Miley Cyrus doing the same gesture a while ago. Not really cute in my opinion, but I would not call it racist either. [But I must add that Miley did apologize after that photo was leaked (bigger version below)]

And then there were many cases of this silly gesture just before the Beijing Olympics 2008, which caused quite a big uproar. The photos on top show the Spanish men's and women's basketball team [no 1, 2, 3] and the one below shows the Argentinian women's football team [no 4] trying to be funny by making their eyes look Asian. The last photo is a bigger version of Miley Cyrus and her friends again.

In my opinion: This is not cute and not funny anymore. I mean doing it as a group photo? Come on, it's just plain stupid. It's taunting and making fun of a certain physical attribute and I think the people on those photos look very immature and silly. What's the point of adults behaving like that? Who thinks that's funny? Well, I don't.

On a personal note: I remember, when I was in Singapore in 2005 and a group of Malay [adult] guys made jokes about my nose and laughing, asking me questions like: "How come you Caucasians all have big noses?" "I don't know, I'm born this way, that's how it is," I replied. I felt very uncomfortable. It's not my fault that I was born White and with a big nose and same goes for Asians being born with smaller eyes. It's not their fault either.

In conclusion: I'm not saying all these people are racist, maybe some are, but it's hard to tell based on the gesture, it won't expose them as racists necessarily. In my opinion, this just shows that they're ignorant and silly. I have no other explanation. I have many Asian friends and I'd never do something like that. I know that not every Asian will be offended by this, but some would. Most likely those who lived abroad and suffered real racism and discrimination. I'm sure they won't see this as innocent and cute. I think that, because of the history of racism [especially in Europe and USA], we should be careful how we joke about other races. I've no problem making jokes about my own race, laughing at my own expense. But making jokes about other races is a very fine line to walk, we need to be very careful. Playing with stereotypes is fun, but only to a certain extent.

Ok, this was my 2 cents on the complex issue, now share your views on these things:

• Can we make a difference between Keith's gesture and the others?
• Do you think these photos are innocent and cute or silly and disturbing?
• Have you ever been taunted, because of the physical attribute of your race?
• When is a ethinc joke or gesture funny and when is it inappropriate?

[Sources: Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3 and 6, Photo 4 and 5, Photo 7]

MKL's hottest women of 2009

The year has come to an end and so it's time for the annual MKL's hottest women of 2009 awards. Ok, I admit that I haven't done this before, but my supportive readers Izso, Shingo and Ax inspire me and keep me going. So I'm doing this for you guys! [*sobs] No, seriously, my blog has always been a prominent place for beauty. Well, who doesn't enjoy beautiful women? And I must say, the year 2009 has been full them for me and I even wrote some posts about them. Therefore I decided to put together my personal top ten of the hottest women of 2009. And I'm asking you, my readers, to look at the photos and vote. Yes, that's right. You will find the poll after the photos. The voting will end on 31. December 2009 and your winner will be announced.

See the photos and vote here >>

[*please be patient, the photos need some time to load. Thank you.]

And your hottest MKL's woman of 2009 is: Ju Da-ha

Congrats! :-)

[Photo from ReallyCuteAsians]

So hot, she made his nose bleed!

Have you ever watched Japanese anime and saw guys getting a nosebleed (like the pic on the left), when they saw a beautiful girl? I did a little research and this explains the prominent phenomenon best:

"In Japanese anime and manga, the nosebleed is a visual shorthand/euphemism for sexual arousal, specifically an erection in males [...]. When blood shoots from the nose explosively, and in ridiculous quantity, the implication is an actual ejaculation." [source]

Now you wonder why I am telling you that. Well, I [and most likely you] always thought that this can only happen in animation. We were all wrong! Check the pics below, taken at a computer fair in China.

Sexy show girls at the fair, don't they look hot? ▼
Uncle came to make some nice photos... ▼
Oh, no, uncle, what happened to your nose? ▼
Oh no, this is bad, nose is bleeding, here's a tissue. ▼
Poor uncle, a bit embarrassing, don't you think? ▼
Leaving fast, hoping there's no blood on the camera. ▼

I have no idea, if his nosebleed was caused by the beauty of that girl, but if it was, I'm not really shocked. I feel a bit bad for the uncle. What do you think? :-)

What is your reaction, when you see a beautiful woman or man?

[Photos: Source]

A year in review: My blog year 2009

Watch out, I'm rambling, it's long ;)

1 My beginnings

I think, since 2009 is nearly over, many bloggers will write their year in review. And so will I here. Well, where to start. I've tried blogging in October 2006, but lost interest after a month and deleted the blog. Then came March 2008 and I decided to start blogging again. I don't know, whether that was a blessing or a curse to you, my followers, but I must say I do enjoy blogging ever since and you, the readers are a big part of that. In 2008, my blog was more of a diary and I didn't update a lot and also didn't have any readers. But it was still fun to add my 2 cents on various issues. Then came this year: I returned from Malaysia in February and started to blog more passionately, updating a lot and commenting on other blogs. At that time my blog's name was Nino's World. I was heart-broken and blogging was a kind of remedy for me, even if only temporarily, it did help me make it through the hard times. I got few followers and blogging seemed pretty much fun. Until there was an 'incident', where I was dragged in and suddenly haters were directed to my blog, bashing me in the comments. I did not seek trouble, but trouble found me. I guess this sums it up the best.

2 A new bloggining

It stressed me out so much, that I deleted my old blog and started a new one naming it My Kafkaesque life. I imported all the old posts, but the URL was new, the design was new and at least in the beginning, I was more anonymous, but I'm less so today. I left all the drama behind and I found back to my old self. Because I used to be bitter at times, I was negative and moody. Blogging wasn't really fun in July. But it all changed end of August. I stopped following people, who didn't do me any good and I found new ones, who made me feel like I was reborn - and of course the biggest part of this happiness belongs to my sweetie. So I can say I'm happy since end of August and I'm trying to take things as easy as I can now.

3 About following

Those who I follow, probably know, that I'm a very supportive and loyal follower, but I also stopped following people, who didn't give back enough in return or who tended to be too negative sometimes. It doesn't mean I don't like them or that I completely stopped reading their blogs. It's very rare, that I delete a blog from my Google reader. I love reading blogs. But now that I have so much more followers, I do take care of them first. My time is limited, I can only give back so much. And I think everyone does that: The blogosphere is huge, new people come and go, but some stick around. And those who do, you need to cherish them, because they make blogging so much more fun. I really treasure you girls and guys, a big fat thank you!

4 About followers

But there's also people who followed me for a while and then stopped. I thank you, too. I have no idea, why some stopped following me, but I guess the reasons are similar to the ones I have, when I stop following other bloggers: They bore me, I don't agree with what they write or how they comment. That's all legitimate and ok. That's a solid part of blogging and I'm not mad at anyone, who stopped following me. I don't try to be interesting to everyone and I don't take blogging as a popularity contest and I know some won't like me or just misunderstand me. That's just very common here. But I do have to say, that some who stopped following me, did surprise me and I was disappointed for a while. But new ones started following and I got used to that constant changing. Then again, blogging is not everything in my life. Lately I don't write so much about my private life [I merely hint], although a lot of interesting things are happening. On the other hand, my blog's motto is scribbling about everything and judging by the poll [previous post], most of you like my blog this way. So I always have something to blog about and I don't need to write a diary :-)

5 Fun facts about 2009

1 Infamous Chinabounder commented on my blog: See here.
2 Singaporean celebrity blogger Dawn Yang commented: See here.
3 My most popular post was 7 Things about me you didn't know: See here.
4 Most interesting comments were on Asian Women/Western men: See here.
5 Most hits from Google got my post about Elly Tran Ha: See here.
6 Most controversial post: About Dawn Yang [I deleted hate comments]: See here.
7 My personal favorite post is How should a man be in 2009: See here.
8 Old posts I'd recommend to read again [click on the links]:

- Brad Pitt lecturer in Seoul and Tokyo [this was supposed to be funny, I made it up!]
- No urinating in common areas in Hong Kong [interesting stuff from my trip]
- Get a brain, morans [Banners, where the English is misspelled, mostly by Americans]
- Chinese girl at the temple [A sexy girl I saw near a temple in Malaysia]
- Did Susan Boyle freak out? [I annoyed my friends on twitter with this #fail]

6 In conclusion

It was an interesting blog year, with many ups and downs. I was misunderstood and complimented many times, people followed and stopped following. I wrote brilliant stuff and I wrote rubbish, I wrote great comments and I wrote comments I am ashamed of now. I was involved in controversies and nontroversies and I apologized more than once [and I would still do so, if I know that I did something wrong]. Well, that's life and that's how blogging is ;-) Let us not forget, that all of us are human and we can make a mistake or two now and then, it just shouldn't become the norm. However it was: It was exciting! :-) And I hope that 2010 will be an equally exciting blog year for all of us. There are a lot of changes coming up in my life - in few months I will be blogging from Asia. Hope you guys will like it :-)

And now I'm tagging everyone to do the same post like I did: Sum up your blog year like I did here and you can be sure I will be eager to read about your experiences and also I hope you highlight your popular posts and old posts worthy to read again.

Thanks and good luck! :-)

Your MKL

2009 Opinion poll about MKL

This is just a little opinion poll, because I am curious about what you, my readers, like to read. I know I don't have many readers, but those of you who find your way here regularly are very appreciated - thank you! If you haven't yet added your two cents here (What do you like about me?), you can do that now, I'd really appreciate it. I hope that my readership grows next year and years to come, so I will do my best to improve the quality of my little blog :-)

*I disabled comments here. Just need your votes for now ;)

Singapore vs. Linfen 临汾

A little bit about pollution in China and my 2c on the topic

Did you know that there's a city in PR China named Linfen and it's almost as big as Singapore? If you didn't know, then now you know. But that's about it with the similarities. Because while Singapore has been given nicknames like the Garden city or the Green city...

...Linfen has been given the nickname the dirtiest city in the world (or on earth). I didn't know about Linfen before, but when they showed it on German TV today, I couldn't believe my eyes. Toxic smog every day all the time! How can people even breathe? The scariest part was the high rate of phisically and mentally disabled children. Linfen is in the centre of the Chinese coal industry and China is addicted to coal. I guess it won't get better too soon. Here are some shocking photos:

I guess you Singaporeans can be proud of your green city ;)

Of course there's much more to Linfen than just the pollution, you can browse some photos here. But for the sake of their own people, China has to do something, especially for the children, who didn't choose to live in such a horribly polluted city. I'm really not too sure, if global warming is caused by men and if all the predictions about 2100 will be true. Seems like global warming has become a new religion for some, I'm more of a sceptic. However, pollution is man made and we have to do (and we can do) something about that now.

Did you know about Linfen? How is pollution in your city?

Photo sources: [1 by MKL 2005][2, 3, 4, 6 by www.vbs.tv][5 by sheilaz413][7 by Wu Hong/EPA]

Links: [Linfen on Wikipedia][About Linfen, many photos and text in Chinese]

My Malaysia truly Asia

15 awesome and less awsome things about Malaysia

I browsed my old photos from my travels today and I realized, that I've been in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) just about a year ago. So I thought why not posting some interesting and funny pics about that lovely Asian country that I've taken during my three stays there (in 2005, 2007, 2008/09). So here's something for you: 15 unusual things I've encountered while traveling around Malaysia. People who know me, know that I love that country, therefore please don't think that I want to show it in a bad light. I've written about your country a lot already (check the labels) - this is just for fun. I put the pics in the following cathegories: Engrish, Awsome, Tsk tsk tsk and Uniquely Malaysia. Enjoy :)

1 Uniquely Malaysia: You won't see politicians wrapped in flags in my country :P I wonder what my Malaysian friend Zewt thinks about this. I have no idea what the party stands for. But I must say - they look dynamic :P


2. Uniquely Malaysia: Yes, you have Miami beach in Penang Malaysia. Awesome! I think I saw Pamela Anderson swimming there in a red suit. But I'm not too sure :P

3. Uniquely Malaysia: Mat rempit a.k.a. illegal street racers look like the two on the motorcycles. I'm not too sure, if those two do that, because while I was in Penang, they usually raced on Friday and Saturday evenings and because of them I couldn't sleep :( Malaysian motorcyclists are fearless: Be it torrential rains or scorching sun, they will move forward somehow :)

4. Awesome Malaysia: Tak nak ("don't want") would be loosely translated as Say no, in this case to smoking. I think the banner is cool and convincing. :P What do you think?

5. Engrish? No, although it sounds like the English slang term 'hoe' (a promiscuous person), it has nothing to do with that. It's a romanization of a company name in Chinese, probably Hokkien. Am I right? :P

6. Uniquely Malaysia: Malaysians love to modify cars. I've seen a lot of them, many in Hello Kitty style, but there's quite few with the Doraemon (famous Japanese anime) style. You won't see this here :)

7. Engrish! Yes, this one does have the grammar messed up a little. But for me, it was more funny to see that there's nobody working on anything, hehe. Maybe it was just a day off for the workers. I'm sure they worked tirelessly the next day, when I wasn't there :P

8. Awesome Malaysia: This piece of art near the Petronas twin towers is entirely made of empty soft drink cans. It's pretty cool, isn't it? :)

9. Uniquely Malaysia: This is a ficus benjamina, a plant that is commonly found in our offices in huge flower pots. You would never find this plant outside in the ground here. But Malaysia has a tropical climate and these things grow from the ground just like that. Amazing :)

10. Engrish: I think there's a "th" too much. :) And in Malaysia, the Christmas is always warm(th), hehe. Not like here, where I'm freezing my butt off -_- The second pic is from Genting and it's awesome, right? :)

11. Tsk tsk tsk Malaysia: I saw this after we parked the car under the First World Hotel in Genting, the famous Malaysian mountain resort. Numbers of call girls are all over the walls. :(

12. Awesome Malaysia: This is like a small indoor theme park and when I was snapping a pic of that colorful whale-like monorail floating thingy, happy Malaysians waved at me. You can be sure, that Malaysians are very friendly and funny people. They have a lot of fun especially in groups :)

13. Tsk tsk tsk Malaysia: This is something I didn't like about the country: littering. And this one is especially bad, because it's near a temple and at Chinese new year. I've seen Malaysians throwing trash on the streets or even from the car very lightly. I'm not saying my country is the cleanest, but Malaysia has a lot of room for improvement in this regard ;)

14. Awesome Malaysia: I think this guy is cool :) Enjoying his ride without the need of an aircon, which is a must-have in every Malaysian car. And yes, you will see things like that in my country, too. But not in the city, more in the country side :)

In conclusion: I've written this post to somehow round up my whole Malaysia experience. From all the foreign countries I've ever been, I've stayed the longest in Malaysia, that's why it's been a second home to me and it'll always hold a special place in my heart. But in 2010 I will turn a new page in my book. I will go to another beautiful Asian country and I hope it will become my new second home. You can be sure that I will write a lot about my life there. Hope everything goes well. And if you haven't yet figured out which country I mean, check this photo.

Thanks to everyone, who made my Malaysia-experience unique and unforgettable. I'm moving on. my future is elsewhere. But I hope to visit Malaysia again one day :)

[My MALAYSIA page][All photos by MKL, 2007/09]