Higher food prices drive ramen sales
Is the economy up? Is it down? There is one indicator we may be overlooking, reports the Korea Daily: yep, ramen sales. “Food that fills your belly for under a dollar?,” the article begins. According to the paper, ramen sales are up 17% worldwide as food prices continue to climb (they’ve risen 25% in the US from January 2020). Citing an informal survey of a handful of college students here in the US, 93% said they eat ramen – the convenient, affordable instant noodle product found in most supermarket aisles – several times a month. “As the cost of living increases, even middle-class people who did not eat ramen before have started to eat ramen,” the article notes, quoting one industry insider. Japanese food maker Nissin, meanwhile, has announced plans for a ramen factory in South Carolina and expansions at existing factories in California and Pennsylvania. GRP (Gross Ramen Product), anyone?
Small business opportunities
Staying with the economy, a report from La Opinión in Los Angeles notes that enterprising entrepreneurs might want to look at opportunities in the construction, retail, janitorial and food sectors. Speaking at a recent event in Washington DC, the head of the Small Business Administration (SBA), Isabel Casillas Guzmán said recent investments by the Biden administration in transportation infrastructure and broadband expansion have opened opportunities for aspiring businesses in these sectors. Even family-run stores are a good option, she said. “Across the board there have been historic opportunities, but those companies are creating local jobs and boosting the local economy in our neighborhoods.” Eighteen percent of such businesses in the US are immigrant-owned, according to the SBA.
Domestic violence and maternal health among Indigenous Alaskans
More Alaskan women who die in the first year after giving birth die from either violence or as the result of an overdose, according to reporting by the Alaska Beacon, by way of Indian Country Today. And Indigenous Alaskans are overrepresented in these numbers. “The most recent data shows that nearly twice as many pregnancy-associated deaths in the state are from homicide, suicide and drug or alcohol overdose than are from pregnancy-related medical causes. More than 70% of the mothers who died had a history of intimate partner violence.” The figures come from Indigenous Justice, a database of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. Advocates say the state need to do more to provide not just medical care but safety.
Black high school students confront racism
A Black female high school student in Kansas City, Misssouri was hospitalized with a broken nose after being attacked by another white male student, reports Word in Black. The altercation happened after the girl confronted another white male student for repeatedly calling Black students, slaves. It was then that a third white male student stepped in, hurling the N-word at the girl. An altercation ensued, with both students ultimately suspended, stirring an uproar from the community. On November 29, students marched outside the school demanding change to what many see as a history of racist policies. In Kentucky, meanwhile, the family of a disabled Black student has filed a federal lawsuit against St. Joseph Catholic School in the city of Cold Spring, according to Black Catholic Messenger. The suit alleges months of racial discrimination, including the use of the N-word by one teacher and her refusal to grant the student, the lone Black student in her class, communion. The school has denied wrongdoing, contending the instructor was simply trying to give examples of racial slurs as a means of discouraging racism.
Majority of Asian Americans say discrimination is a major problem
A new PEW survey of 7000 Asian Americans finds a majority (57%) see anti-Asian discrimination as a “major problem,” reports AsAm News. Another 63% say not enough attention is paid to the issue. Seventy eight percent of respondents said they’ve been treated as a foreigner even though they were born in the United States, including being told to go back to their “home country.” Others say they have had encounters with people who assume they didn’t speak English well or criticized them for speaking a second language. Sixty three percent say others assume they are good at math or science and lack creative skills – stereotypes associated with the “model minority.”
Saigon’s nameless memories
Finally, from Nguoi Viet, a farewell to writer, musician and for years – until the fall of Saigon in 1975 – the beloved host of the Theme Music program on Saigon Radio, Nguyen Dinh Toan. Born in 1936 in Hanoi, Nguyen moved to Saigon in 1954. His works include Fading Dreams, which won the Republic of Vietnam Literature and Arts Award in 1973. Much of his poetry dealt with his city of birth. “Whoever lives in this place often has the feeling of living in a dream, perhaps a dream that never fades with the mist and cold rain of autumn,” he told a literary magazine in 1974. In 1975, Nguyen was arrested and spent 10 years in a “re-education camp” before being released. In 1998, he and his family emigrated to the United States, settled in Southern California, and continued to work in the field of literature and art. “Every week, a group of female friends from Gia Long school and I would gather at someone’s house, eagerly waiting to listen to the Theme Music program on Saigon radio station. It was a dreamy paradise for us,” Thao Ha Nguyen of Maryland, told the paper. Nguyen died peacefully on November 28 near his home in California. He was 87.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
