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I’ve long suspected widespread discrimination against Asian Americans students in the college admission process, especially by elite American universities. Here is an article shedding light on this shameful practice.

Some excerpts from the article:

Studies show that Asian-Americans meet these colleges’ admissions standards far out of proportion to their 6 percent representation in the U.S. population, and that they often need test scores hundreds of points higher than applicants from other ethnic groups to have an equal chance of admission…

…A study by Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade examined applicants to top colleges from 1997, when the maximum SAT score was 1600 (today it’s 2400). Espenshade found that Asian-Americans needed a 1550 SAT to have an equal chance of getting into an elite college as white students with a 1410 or black students with an 1100.

You can read the full article here.

This practice flies in the face of meritocracy that is at the very core of American idealism. You let your fastest runners compete in the Olympics. You let your most talented basketball players become star NBA players. Why not let the brightest and most hard working students into the best universities?

This article deals with only racial discrimination at academic institutions. One can only surmise how much anti-Asian discrimination goes on in the workplace, where the practice is not as easily quantifiable.

If America insists on perpetuating this appalling practice and fails to recruit its best and brightest citizens– including Asian Americans– to its best colleges and companies, then it will risk being surpassed by other countries, especially Asian countries.

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As you already may have heard, there is a new movie being made about the “Great Khmer Empire”. John Cena, the former pro wrestler, will star as the great Khmer King Jayavarman VII. Angelina Jolie, Jet Li, and a few other recognizable Hollywood names will be in it, too.

Currently, the movie is still in production. The last time I read about the movie, they were “consulting” with the Cambodian government about the “historical accuracy” of the film. It’s interesting that they’re consulting with government officials, rather than scholars and historians, about the film’s historical accuracy.

Obviously, many Khmer people are very excited about this project because they think Hollywood is showing interest in our culture. Personally, I don’t think there is anything in this movie for Khmer people to celebrate about. Casting John Cena as Jayavarman VII, the greatest of Khmer kings, is about as credible as casting some Chinese guy as George Washington in a movie about the American Revolution. And the idea of making King Jayavarman VII look like some sort of Conan the Barbarian is a complete joke.

So why aren’t Khmer people laughing? Why are most Khmers embracing this movie as some sort of honor to them? I for one would feel rather awkward watching a movie supposedly about the The Great Khmer Empire in which none of the main characters could even pronounce the word “Khmer” properly. (No, it’s not “Khmair” or “Ga-mair” or “Xmer”.)

I think that we Khmers are so beleaguered– militarily, economically, morally, and psychologically– as a people that there’s hardly any objection within our community to the making of a movie about Khmer civilization where the main roles are being played exclusively by non-Khmer actors. Beleaguered means besieged, defeated, down and out. Granted, our civilization has endured a streak of bad luck for the last several centuries. Cambodia today is reduced to a small fraction of the Great Khmer Empire that we once were and our people scattered throughout the world. When foreigners visit Angkor Wat, they often express disbelief, in a mocking way, how a people once capable of building a monument of such grandeur could have declined to our present state.

While I am pleased that Hollywood is shown interest in our great past, I think it’s insulting to reduce the real Khmer people to token roles in a movie about our great ancestors. If the makers of this movie do not deem Khmer actors marketable to the Western audience, then the movie is probably better off done entirely in CGI (computer generated imagery). Can you imagine the outrage in the African American community if they were to make a movie about Martin Luther King, Jr., casting a white actor in black face as the great civil rights leader?

Speaking of civil rights, I think it’s absolutely wonderful to have an African American holding the highest office of the most powerful country on the planet. As brilliant as Barack Obama is, his success cannot be credited entirely to his own efforts alone. The rise of a black man to the US presidency did not start in Uncle Tom’s cabin. Rather, it is the culmination of the sacrifice, devotion, courage, and moral defiance of Abe Lincoln, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and countless other great people.

King Jayavarman VII was a great warrior. More than a warrior, he was a great intellectual, a planner and builder, a deeply spiritual person. Above all, he was a proud Khmer, a strong and assertive leader who probably would not have been very amused by this Hollywood shenanigan.

Come to think of it, the Khmers of the Angkorian period were so different from what we’ve become today that it might be more fitting– in a sad way– to have non-Khmer actors play the roles of great Khmer figures from the past. And with proper “consultation” with Cambodian government officials, they might even portray Jayavarman VII as an alien from outer space who descended temporarily upon Earth in the 12th century and chose present-day Siem Reap to build Angkor.

I think Khmer people can become great again, but it’s going to take a bit of awakening. We must understand what it takes to become great. Greatness does not come from subservience or passiveness. Greatness starts with knowing where we are and where we need to go. Greatness takes strength, vision, purpose, hard work, unity, courage, and determination. It takes pride, confidence, and assertiveness, tempered by compassion, tolerance, humility, and flexibility. Greatness takes creativity, gumption, and willingness to adapt to changing circumstances. To be great one must constantly pursue excellence and higher good on one’s own initiative and personal moral convictions, not simply to win the approval of others.

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Have you ever handed a $1 bill to a beggar at the intersection and spent the next 10 minutes in your car complaining how lazy he was for choosing to beg instead of work to support himself? We all have. Truth be told, we’d never know the full story why he became bum. It’s always easier just to blame people and make assumptions about them than to make a real effort to help the less fortunate.

Last year the U.S. gave just $5.8 million in aid to Cambodia. This may be a huge amount for you and me, but in a country of 14 million people, it comes out to just $0.40 a person, enough to buy everyone a pack of chewing gum. Of course, people will point out to things like corruption and human rights abuses to justify the meager aid amount.

These arguments about corruption, human rights abuses, and whatnot aren’t wrong. But giving a poor country like Cambodia $5.8 million a year is like slapping a band-aid on someone’s bullet wound and giving them a lengthy lecture on gun safety.

As long as people are hungry and uneducated, democracy and human rights mean nothing to them. Resources are extremely scarce here. Even in the absence of corruption, there still is not enough to go around. This is something that many outsiders, including overseas Khmers, don’t understand.

Survival comes first. If you were living in a situation where food is so scare that there are only a couple of spoons of rice for everyone and you were in charge of distributing the food in your village, would you not steal a bowl of rice for your own hungry children if you had the chance, even if your action left everyone else with only a spoon? Of course, you would. In fact, many Khmers learned to steal during the Khmer Rouge. An extreme state of despair can drive good people to do bad deeds. And they don’t necessarily give up the bad deeds after their needs are met.

While stealing a million dollars to build a luxurious villa isn’t quite the same as stealing a bowl of rice to feed one’s hungry children, most corruption in Cambodia occur at small-scale levels where public servants like teachers, policemen, and government officials try to supplement their $20-a-month salary with extra money to feed their families.

Fortunately, Cambodia’s biggest donors like Japan, who provides our country about $250 million in aid each year, have a more accurate understanding of our situation. Besides buying villas and luxury cars for a few government officials, the aid money also enable roads, bridges, sewage, and other public works projects to be built. Many Khmer lives are saved by the improved sanitation, education, and food and health programs provided by our generous donors.

These donors aren’t clueless about the need for less corruption in Cambodia. But they also understand that you can’t feed people’s minds while ignoring their stomachs. Khmer people eat rice; we don’t eat democracy or human rights. As problems like corruption and human rights abuses stem at least in part from the extreme scarcity of resources in Cambodia, solving these social problems go hand-in-hand with addressing basic needs like food, shelter, medicine, and education.

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Here in Cambodia and throughout East Asia, Asian women are highlighting their hair, getting plastic surgery to round their eyes and sharpen their noses, and even undergoing dangerous chemical peels to make their skins lighter.

Personally, I think the black, silky hair of Asian women are the most beautiful of all. And there are beautiful and ugly women of all skin tones.

Highlighting one’s hair to a different color may be nothing more than a harmless matter of preference, just like changing styles of clothing. But an over-obsession with the transformation to look more European might point to much more serious underlying problems, problems of low self-esteem and inferior complex. Frankly, I think some Asian women who have overdone these transformations look like freaks of nature, negating any beauty improvements they might have gained from the procedures.

As I am writing this Michelle Obama, first lady of the most powerful nation on earth, is touring the world as a Black smart and beautiful woman who has everything going her way. In fact, she was successful long before she became first lady. Perhaps, her prominent profile will foster a new paradigm that redefines people’s perception of beauty, status, and self-esteem throughout the world.

Of course, heavens forbid that Ms. Obama’s high profile should inspire light-skinned to darken their skins. That’s missing the point. Do you know what happens when light-skinned Khmer women try to get a tan? They don’t get tan; instead, they turn brown with unsightly dark patches that look like giant freckles.

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I’ve decided to launch a new website to bring together internet marketers and entrepreneurs like myself from around the world to socially network and share tips and tactics to succeed in running an online business.

You can visit and join the online community at www.internetmarketersnet.com.

As you may already know, for the last 13 years since graduating from Purdue Univ. with a Master’s in medicinal chemistry, I have been making a living exclusively off the web. Having an online business has allowed me to set my own hours and take my business everywhere I go. This is really important because I can live anywhere in the world– the U.S., Cambodia, or even Timbuktu (assuming there are internet cafes there)– and still be able to make a living. In fact, I have been living in Cambodia for 7 months now and able carry on my business as usual.

When I told my friends, relatives, and acquaintances in the U.S. about moving to Cambodia, many thought I was crazy. They’d ask what I’d be doing to support myself in Cambodia. Some even nefariously insinuated that I was coming to cash in on the rampant corruption here.

Most people here in Cambodia would give up anything to immigrate to the U.S., not the other way around. But I’m not most people. I’ve always been a rebel and non-conformist in my own way, not hesitant to thumb my nose at convention wisdom, especially when I feel that conventional wisdom is misguided. But here I digress.

Many of you have probably heard about guys who’ve made millions on the web and are wondering about how to get rich online yourselves. Well, if anyone has figured out a way to become a millionaire overnight from the internet, be sure to let me in on the secret, because for the last 13 years I’ve been working like a dog just to pay the bills.

Truth be told, it’s not easy to make money from an online business that doesn’t involve porn, gambling, and scamming old people of their life savings. For instance, as much time as I devote to Khmercity.net, I make just enough from the site to buy a couple cups of coffee a day (and I’m talking about regular coffee, not the Venti frappuccino you get from Starbucks). Anyway, I shouldn’t be complaining too much because not too many jobs allow you to work and enjoy a cold beer at the same time (like I am right now). Besides, I don’t envy others who have to deal with office politics– overbearing bosses, insubordinate employees, and jealous gossiping co-workers– on a daily basis.

We’ve all heard about internet success stories the like Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com), Jerry Yang (Yahoo.com), and a handful of others who’ve made billions from their start-ups, but we rarely hear about countless other would-be internet millionaires who became road kills on the information superhighway. So, all things considered, I have to count myself among the fortunate.

Anyhow, if you are interested in making money online, resources like the Internet Marketers Network can prove very helpful. Whatever you do, just don’t quit your day job just yet!

http://www.internetmarketersnet.com

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