Happy Chinese new year!  Since it is Chinese new year, we will talk about Hong Kong today.  As you know it had been a year of turmoil in HK.  A long protest called the umbrella movement put light on Beijing's rule of HK.  Although the street occupation by protesters have been stopped, I think we will be revisiting the same in the near future.  So it is interesting that the very unpopular chief executive of HK, C,Y. Leung came out with a statement asking the people of HK to behave more like sheep in this the year of the sheep.  Sheep are considered to mild and gentle and live in groups without fighting.  Of course, Leung is called the wolf by his critics.  So this is not lost on the people of HK and all kinds of jokes or serious discussion will come out of this.  The word for sheep, goat or ram are all the same in Chinese.  Since I am born under this sign, I will prefer to say its is the year of the ram since I think the ram is tougher than goats or sheep.  I mean the LA Rams sound a lot better than LA Sheep or Goats.

Also from HK, a Filipino domestic worker recently won a scholarship to NYU to study photography after her photos of Filipino domestic workers in a shelter for abused migrant workers in HK came to light.  There are 320,000 foreign domestic workers in HK.  When I was there in 2007 I walked into a park on a Sunday where many of these women were congregating.  This was the one day off they had and since they can't afford other entertainment, they gathered there to visit with each other.  I felt a little uncomfortable then even without knowing that some of them were abused.  As a land that was colonized for much of recent history and now being governed by a communist government, I would think the people of the land I was born, would be very cognizant of human rights.  I think now that HK people are well off financially, they should be treating others as well as they wanted to be treated when they were under British rule.  Now that they are demanding more human rights from Beijing, they should be giving more rights to their foreign workers.  I see some abuses are being tried in court and there are calls for laws improving the lives of foreign workers.  I hope HK will continue to make improvements in this sad situation.

Brian Williams has been suspended for 6 months by NBC for telling a false story of his helicopter being hit during the Iraq war.  Now more stories that he has put out there are under question.  It is a disturbing pattern with a person in such a powerful position when it comes to informing the public.  If it turns out he had lied about another story, then I think his career as an anchor and possibly as a serious journalist is over.

I never did like Brian Williams. I don't have problem with him going on lots of talk shows.  Even presidents do that.  But he tries to be the funny man whenever he goes to the shows.  And it is not just when he is outside of news coverage that he is trying to be funny.  In 1999 when the U.S. "accidentally" bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Williams said of the mistake "oops"".  When innocent people are killed, there is no room for jokes.  It showed an immature behavior for a person in such a serious profession.  Some people have joked or seriously mentioned that with Jon Stewart quitting the Daily Show, Williams should take over that role.  Frankly, if the accusations are accurate, Williams is too unrealistic for even fake news.   I think Jon Stewart has much more integrity as a comedian than Williams as an anchor of a network news organization.

Watched the third and fourth episodes of Fresh off the Boat.  I find these two episodes to be a lot better than the first two.  If it continues to be this funny, it deserve a renewal for next season..

I want to hear some opinions on the new sitcom Fresh off the Boat.  Since this is only the second Asian American sitcom after Margaret Cho's show, I am hoping it would be a success.  It is extremely difficult for a show like this to succeed. On the one hand, if the characters are portrayed like "average Americans" then what would be special about the show?  But if too much racial undertone is used then "average American" may not watch.  And if too much stereotype is used, then it would not serve Asian Americans well.  So all this is a fine line to walk on.  Add to that, you have to be funny.  So this is a high mountain to climb.  I just wish the show the best of luck.

I actually did not watch the Super Bowl last week.  Don't ask!  After hearing people say that Pete Carroll called the worst play in history of the Super Bowl, I looked at the highlights.  I didn't think that was such a bad call.  I mean, there was about 30 seconds left and one timeout.  If they ran the ball and failed, they would have had to use the timeout.  Then if they ran it again and failed, they may not have time to run a third time without a no huddle.  Sure, the chances are they would have scored on two tries running from the one.  But there have been times when NFL teams fail on 2-3 times running from the one.  And the odds are overwhelming that they can pass for one yard as well.  I suspect the odds of an interception from the one is not higher than a fumble from the one.  If the pass is incomplete, the next two plays can be run without a no huddle regardless of what happen.  So I don't think it was a gamble at all for Carroll.  On the other hand, why no criticism for Belicheck for not calling timeout after the first run?  Maybe by not watching the game itself, I missed something but that is my opinion from the highlights.