What college would you attend if getting in and costs were not a factor? Would that differ from what your parents would choose, or what you would choose for your child if you’re a parent? The Princeton Review has just released results from its annual survey of colleges and students and in answering the first question I just posed, students and their parents did have different answers on what they consider their “dream” college:

Students’ Choices:
1-New York University
2-Harvard
3-Princeton
4-Stanford
5-Yale
6-Brown
7-Columbia
8-Duke
9-Cornell
10-UCLA

Parents’ Choices for Their Kids:
1-Princeton
2-Stanford
3-Harvard
4-Notre Dame
5-Duke
6-Yale
7-Boston College
8-Brown
9-Cornell
10-Massachusetts Institute of Technology

As you can see, the most obvious difference between the two lists is that NYU is number one on the students’ list but not even in the top 10 among parents. Perhaps parents think that being in a big city like New York City would be too much of a distraction for their students. But if that were the case, why would Boston area universities like Harvard and Boston College make their list?

At any rate, it’s also interesting to note that Harvard -- arguably the most prestigious university in the world -- is “only” #3 among parents, just above Notre Dame. Finally, it’s a little sad to see that not a single public university made the parents’ top 10. I suppose that means that elitism is still alive and well in the American educational landscape.

Even though Hong Kong is technically a part of China these days, in many ways, the two lands remain separated from each other. One area in which that is plain to see is in regard to how many movies that are box office hits in Hong Kong are never shown in China:

Supernatural films are a staple genre in the Hong Kong cinedrome. One recent success is The Eye, from Hong Kong-based Applause Pictures. The film - about a cornea-transplant patient and her eerie post-surgery visions - was a smash hit at the Hong Kong box office, and remake rights have been purchased by Hollywood’s Cruise/Wagner Productions.

But don’t search for The Eye at Beijing cineplexes any time soon. Despite decades of economic and social reform, the mainland maintains a cinematic nix-list: nudity, homosexuality, extramarital affairs and supernatural themes all remain verboten.

Why is Beijing so concerned about ghosts and goblins? Politically, secret societies based on arcane beliefs have posed threats to China’s power structure for centuries. Socially, the shift toward a modern culture has motivated Beijing to create a list of “approved” religions and conveniently prohibit all else.

So in this case, China wants to ban anything that even hints at traditional beliefs and instead, wants to promote “modernity” and “progress.” Apparently “modernity” and “progress” include censorship, human rights abuses, prohibiting freedom of expression, no freedom of religion, corruption, and a totalitarian regime firmly opposed to democracy.

Yeah, sounds like real progress to me . . .

In many ways, the legacy of the Viet Nam War still haunts the Vietnamese American community. As a result of their political refugee experiences, many Vietnamese remain strongly anti-communist and as a result, react fiercely at any hint that a fellow Vietnamese may potentially harbor any form of sympathy for communism. An intra-community squabble in St. Paul, MN illustrates this clearly:

Tuan Pham says he has been smeared and his business ruined because of intense feeling in the Vietnamese immigrant community about the country’s flag -- and whether he dishonored it. To Tuan Pham, it was a simple act of respect for a visiting dignitary.

But for some of his fellow Vietnamese immigrants, Tuan Pham’s role in briefly lowering the flag of South Vietnam from atop the St. Paul Vietnam Center was a shameful deed. For months, protesters rallied outside his small shop on University Avenue.

Ultimately, Tuan Pham and his wife, Mai Vu, sued more than 50 people for defamation, claiming they tarnished his name, labeled him a communist and ruined his business, which has since closed. The case, going to trial this week in Ramsey County, shows that emotions over a war that ended more than three decades ago still simmer within the city’s Vietnamese community.

Unfortunately, this incident only goes to show that narrow-mindedness and ignorance can originate from many different types of groups. Even though I do not know the exact details of this case, I get the distinct feeling that the Vietnamese who protested against Mr. Pham and caused his business to fail are nothing more than bullies.

Like a classic bully who doesn’t get his way and then takes his frustrations out on other people, the defendants in this lawsuit apparently are still upset about what happened to them in the Viet Nam War and even though it was more than 30 years ago, still cannot deal with their resentment and hostility in a constructive way.

Instead, they constantly look for the slightest little potential provocation and then fly off into an angry rage against a convenient scapegoat, oblivious to the consequences of their actions. Except in this case, Mr. Pham is holding them accountable for their reckless actions, as he absolutely should.

It’s one thing to express our opinions and protest but living in the U.S. should teach anyone that with freedom of expression comes responsibility. If you express yourself irresponsibly, recklessly, and irresponsibly, you should be held accountable. Whether they defendants like it or not, that’s the American way.

For many Korean parents, it’s common to leave their kids at home alone while they’re at work or running errands, etc. But as you can probably imagine, the norms about leaving kids at home here in the U.S. are much different. As the Pacific News Service reports, this cultural disparity has resulted in some serious consequences:

Often many immigrant families cannot afford daycare for their children. They are also especially prone to leaving their children to fend for themselves because they lack the support of grandparents or other relatives nearby who might otherwise help in the care of the children. Cultural attitudes also can influence parents’ decisions. . . .

Hae Sun Shin, a counselor with the Korean Youth Cultural Center, says there are many detrimental emotional side effects for small children left alone. “Latchkey kids often suffer from emotional distress and other negative side effects,” she says in the Korea Daily. Latchkey kids, she says, often suffer from high levels of separation anxiety.

It’s a pretty sad situation for everyone in these types of situations. Thankfully, social service agencies are apparently becoming more sensitive to these types of situations and how they are often merely the result of cultural misunderstandings rather than overt neglect or abuse. On the flip side, as Korean immigrants become more acculturated into American norms, they will hopefully realize that this practice can have serious negative consequences and should be avoided.

Hopefully as both sides become more aware of each other and educated about the specifics involved, this issue will become one less problem that Koreans (and all immigrants) will have to worry about.

We all know that illegal immigration is a very controversial and politically-charged issue these days. One side want to physically close off the border with Mexico and channel billions of dollars on enforcement efforts there. On the other hand, many argue that the only effective way to reduce illegal immigration is through a comprehensive policy that reduces the incentive to come to the U.S.:

Valuable lessons can be gleaned from the continent that supplied America’s original pool of immigrants. When the European Union added Greece, Spain and Portugal as member countries in the 1980s, it channeled massive amounts of aid to these newcomers and Ireland to narrow the income gap separating them from more-prosperous nations like Germany and France.

About half of the $500 billion in aid was spent unwisely; the best investments were in roads and communications linking these four countries to richer markets. Between 1986 and 2003, the per capita GDP of the four nations rose from 65 percent of the average EU member country’s economic output to 82 percent.

Spain spent much of the $120 million it received on new roads that boosted commerce and tourism. As a result, Spanish immigration to other EU countries all but ceased. Ireland now ranks as the second richest member of the EU in per capita terms -- and for the first time in its history, it is actually receiving rather than sending immigrants.

As the recent demonstrations and protests all around the country against punitive anti-immigrant legislation illustrate, there will be significant political and social repercussions if this narrow-minded reactionary effort to curb illegal immigration passes. As sociologists have been trying to argue for decades, this issue is not a simple case of fortifying our borders -- there are significant social forces driving this phenomenon.

Of course, the U.S. is not the E.U. and currently is not exactly in a fiscally generous mood. Nonetheless, as Congress starts to debate legislation this week, these ideas are another illustration of the old adage that if you truly want meaningful results, we need to cure the ‘disease’ and not just treat the symptoms. Yes, more and better law enforcement is necessary, but that will only go so far.

The real solution requires a longer-term vision, not a punitive and reactionary crackdown that will do more harm than good.

Back in 2004, in the process of delivering a $10 Chinese takeout order, an 18 year old Chinese American deliveryman was lured into an apartment and then repeatedly beaten and stabbed to death by three young men. These three men were subsequently found guilty of murder and two of them were recently sentenced to more than 50 years in prison:

Prosecutors claimed the killing was a robbery and initiation into a branch of the notorious Bloods gang. Another one of the teens, Charles Bryant, 18, was already sentenced last May, to 52 years to life in prison. The third member of the group, Nayquan Miller, 18, agreed to a plea deal. He later testified against Capehart and is expected to be sentenced next month. . . .

Community leaders hailed the stiff prison term. “This is the kind of sentencing that will ensure criminals will face the full force of our justice system, especially if they think food delivery workers are easy prey,” said New York City Council Member John Liu.

Normally I consider myself liberal in terms of crime and criminal justice, and that young and first-time criminals should normally be given a chance to atone for their crime and become rehabilitated into productive citizens. However, there are certain crimes that defy understanding and as a result, defy my usual sympathy for the accused. This is one of those crimes.

In this case, justice was (somewhat surprisingly) served for the entire Asian American community, American society in general, and of course, for the Chen family who lost their son in such a violent and devastating way.

At the same time, I can’t help but fear that this entire episode is not likely to do wonders for Asian-Black relations. Although there are plenty of Blacks who probably feel that the murderers got what they deserve, there are also likely to be many who feel that the guilty men were sentenced too harshly and coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, were not given an opportunity to redeem themselves.

Ultimately, I hope that many Americans of all different races and backgrounds can agree on is that the vast majority of minorities who are poor and disadvantaged do not gang up on and murder innocent Chinese takeout deliverymen. Being victims of racism does not make it ok to perpetrate such an evil act -- one that hurts all Americans, whatever their skin color.

A new study on student’s perceptions of their professor’s political ideology argues that while there is the potential for professors to evaluate or grade a student unfairly based on political differences between the two, it is actually more likely that the student will unfairly evaluate the professor based on their differences in political beliefs:

A new study -- soon to be published in PS: Political Science & Politics -- finds that students are the ones with bias, attributing characteristics to their professors based on the students’ perceptions of their faculty members’ politics and how much they differ from their own. The authors say that the study directly refutes the idea that students are being somehow indoctrinated by views that they don’t like.

“Students aren’t simply sponges,” says April Kelly-Woessner, part of the husband-and-wife team of political scientists who wrote the study. Further, she adds that the study suggests that not only do students not change their views because of professors, but may even “push back” and judge professors based on politics, not merit.

The study ends with a strong call for professors to be willing to present ideas that may upset some students. “College is not Club Med. As instructors, we ought not to refine our pedagogy exclusively for the purpose of making students comfortable or improving course evaluations,” write [the study’s authors].

It’s nice to have some research to illustrate the dynamics of classroom “culture wars” from the other side of the podium. I personally agree that we need to give students a lot more sense of agency than we currently do and to understand that students are free to agree or disagree with what we as professors have to say.

In other words, as this study shows, what’s actually going on inside classrooms is not “indoctrination” -- it is an exchange of ideas, opinions, and information -- otherwise known as “college.”

Congratulations to Japan for beating Cuba and winning the inaugural World Baseball Classic championship. This was a tournament that included many of the best all-star players from around the world, with the U.S. fielding its own team of superstars (who ultimately and embarrassingly lost in the quarterfinals):

Despite having only two major leaguers, Japan won the tournament. Despite having no major leaguers, Cuba finished second. The United States feels it has the best players in the world. In this tournament, that was untrue. Japan, as the flying flags showed, was the class of this classic.

Personally, I probably rooted for the U.S. the most. Nonetheless, this outcome of Japan winning the championship is very rewarding nonetheless because it goes a long way in demonstrating that although baseball is an American invention and that American players are the most well-known and well-paid, that does not automatically mean that American baseball players are always superior to non-American players.

In other words, players from Japan, Cuba, and many other countries are just as good -- if not even better -- than many U.S. players. It was this kind of arrogant, jingoistic, and racist attitude that kept Black players out of the major leagues for so long. I would also argue that it is this same kind of attitude that leads many Americans into believing that Japanese baseball is inferior to American baseball.

Thankfully, not all Americans feel that way. One example comes from Jim Rome, the nationally-popular and celebrated talk radio sports commentator who said the following about Ichiro Suzuki, perhaps Team Japan’s best known player:

Ichiro Suzuki, as he usually is, was the man for Japan. He hit .364 (low for him), had a jack, stole four bases, and drove in 5 runs. He had 2 knocks last night and scored 3 times in the championship game. This guy is just a phenomenal player. Too bad that he plays on such a non-descript, go nowhere major league team.

The guy is collecting 250 hits a season, and no one seems to care. Granted, he isn’t all pumped up on moo juice, beef roids, and clomid, (allegedly), but there aren’t too many guys that are more entertaining to watch play ball. Ichiro runs like a deer, uses a bat like a magic wand and plays right field as well as anyone, but nobody cares because he is on the Mariners, and they have lost 93 and 99 games the last 2 seasons.

I know it is asking a lot to actually sit through a Mariners game, but do yourself a favor and watch this guy play. There’s nothing else in baseball like the guy. As agonizing as it would be to sit through an entire Mariners game, what this guy brings to the field makes it worth it.

Congratulations again to Ichiro and the entire Team Japan and let’s hope the U.S. has a better answer next year.